ty of
travel, the greater prosperity! But I am opposed to all railroads, the
depot for which is an unprincipled speculator's pocket.

It was only a few weeks later that I had to condemn a much greater
matter, a national event.

On March 1, 1878, the Silver Bill was passed in Washington,
notwithstanding the President's veto. The House passed it by a vote of
196 against 73, and the Senate agreed with a vote of 46 against 10. It
would be asking too much to expect anyone to believe that the 196 men in
Congress were bought up. So far as I knew the men, they were as honest
on one side of the vote as on the other. Senator Conkling, that giant of
integrity, opposed it. Alexander H. Stephens voted for it. I talked with
Mr. Stephens about it, and he said to me at the time, "Unless the Silver
Bill pass, in the next six months there will not be two hundred business
houses in New York able to stand." Still, the Silver Bill seemed like
the first step towards repudiation of our national obligation, but I
believe that at least 190 out of those 196 men who voted for it would
have sacrificed their lives rather than repudiate our national debt.

I had an opportunity to comprehend the political explosion of the
passage of this Bill all over the country, for it so happened I made a
lecturing trip through the South and South-west during the month of
March, 1878.

There is one word that described the whole feeling in the South at this
time, and that was "hope." The most cheerful city, I found, was New
Orleans. She was rejoicing in the release from years of unrighteous
government. Just how the State of Louisiana had been badgered, and her
every idea of self-government insulted, can be appreciated only by those
who come face to face with the facts. While some of the best patriots of
the North went down with the right motives to mingle in the
reconstruction of the State governments of the South, many of these
pilgrimists were the cast-off and thieving politicians of the North,
who, after being stoned out of Northern waters, crawled up on the beach
at the South to sun themselves. The Southern States had enough dishonest
men of their own without any importation. The day of trouble passed.
Louisiana and South Carolina for the most part are free. Governor
Nichols of the one, and Governor Wade Hampton of the other, had the
confidence of the great masses of the people.

It was my opinion then that the largest fortunes were yet to be made in
the