l understand why my amiable friends from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Myers, Mr. Kelley and Mr. O'Neill) should be so
earnest in their support of this bill the other day, and if their
honorable colleague, my friend, Mr. Randall, will pardon the remark, I
will say I considered his criticism of their action on that occasion as
not only unjust, but ungenerous. I knew they were looking forward with
the far-reaching ken of enlightened statesmanship to the pitiable
condition in which Philadelphia will be left, unless speedily supplied
with railroad connection in some way or other with this garden spot of
the universe. (Laughter.) And besides, sir, this discussion has relieved
my mind of a mystery that has weighed upon it like an incubus for years.
I could never understand before why there was so much excitement during
the last Congress over the acquisition of Alta Vela. I could never
understand why it was that some of our ablest statesmen and most
disinterested patriots should entertain such dark forebodings of the
untold calamities that were to befall our beloved country unless we
should take immediate possession of that desirable island. But I see now
that they were laboring under the mistaken impression that the
Government would need the guano to manure the public lands on the St.
Croix. (Great laughter.)

Now, sir, I repeat I have been satisfied for years that if there was any
portion of the inhabited globe absolutely in a suffering condition for
want of a railroad it was these teeming pine barrens of the St. Croix.
(Laughter.) At what particular point on that noble stream such a road
should be commenced I knew was immaterial, and so it seems to have been
considered by the draughtsman of this bill. It might be up at the spring
or down at the foot-log, or the Watergate, or the fish-dam, or anywhere
along the bank, no matter where. (Laughter.) But in what direction
should it run, or where should it terminate, were always to my mind
questions of the most painful perplexity. I could conceive of no place
on "God's green earth" in such straitened circumstances for railroad
facilities as to be likely to desire or willing to accept such a
connection. (Laughter.) I knew that neither Bayfield nor Superior City
would have it, for they both indignantly spurned the munificence of the
Government when coupled with such ignominious conditions, and let this
very same land grant die on their hands years and years ago, rather than
submit to the degrad