thern enterprise they might have stopped at
Ohio, the Monongahela, and the Niagara. [Applause.]

The empire thus secured remained to be subdued. From the States in which
you and I, gentlemen, were born has come a noble wing of the grand army
of subjugation, all of whose battles have been victories and all of
whose victories have been victories of civilization. Moving first from
the old States of the South it took possession of territory along the
Gulf and of Tennessee and of Kentucky's "dark and bloody ground." Fame
crowned the heroes of these campaigns with the patriot's name, and
glorified them as pioneers. As their advance guards swept across the
Mississippi and took possession of Missouri, Arkansas, and territory
farther north, envy called it invasion, and when their scouts appeared
in Nebraska and Kansas they were repelled amid the passion of the hour.
Meanwhile, a new element, whose quickening power is scarcely yet
appreciated, had joined the grand movement. Early in the forties a South
Carolinian captain of engineers, the Pathfinder, John C. Fremont, had
marked the way to the far West coast, and added a new realm to the
National domain. [Applause.] It was the domain soon famed for its
delightful climate, its wealth of resources, and its combination of
every natural advantage that human life desires. The gleaming gold soon
after found in the sands of Sutter's Fort spread its fame afar and
attracted to it the superb band of men who came from every State to lay
firm and sure the foundation of the new commonwealth.

There were only fourteen Southerners in the Constitutional Convention at
Monterey, but their genius for government made them a fair working
majority in the body of forty-eight members. Not content with building a
grand State like this, the united army gathered from the North and South
alike turned its face toward the desert and fastnesses of the eternal
hills and "continuous woods where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound
save his own dashings," and pitched their tents, rolled back the awful
silence that through ages had reigned there; and learned the secrets
that desolation guarded, alluring to them from their fastnesses a
renewed stream of treasure which has resulted in making us the envy of
all other nations.

In conspicuous contrast to the attitude and sentiment of the South, the
East has never followed to encourage nor sympathize with the West.
Whether it be in legislation or politics or finance, t