fore Congress and the country, and finally,
partially through his efforts, interest in the project was kept
alive until it was determined, first, that the canal should be
constructed; and second, that it should be over the Panama route.
Many people thought that the selection of the Panama route would
break Senator Morgan's heart; but they did not know him. He made
the best fight he could, and when the Panama route was selected he
took the same deep interest in the legislation to carry the work
forward that he had always taken in the possible alternative route.
He was firmly convinced that the canal, on account of certain
physical reasons, could never be constructed across the Isthmus of
Panama.

Time alone will tell whether or not Senator Morgan was right. Time
has demonstrated that he was right in his contention that the Panama
Canal could never be constructed for the amount estimated by the
engineers, one hundred and eighty-three million dollars. It has
already cost over two hundred million dollars, and it is not yet
nearly completed. The latest estimates are that it will cost over
three hundred and eighty-five million dollars. How much more it
will cost the United States, no one can say.

During the later years of his life, he was probably the most
interesting and unique figure in the Senate. Toward the close of
his Senatorial career he became very feeble, but he attended to
his Senatorial duties as long as he was able to be about at all.
The last time I saw him alive was on the fourth of March, 1907,
the last day of the session, and the last time he ever entered the
Senate or the Capitol. He looked very emaciated and feeble. I
spoke to him, inquiring about his health. He replied, "I am just
tottering around," and after a pause, added, "Cullom, when I die
and you die and Frye dies, and one or two others, this Senate will
not amount to much, will it?"

He died a few months afterwards at his home in Washington, and in
his death there passed away the last of the old familiar type of
Southern statesmen, so frequently to be met with in Washington
before the Civil War, and the last Senator who served as a Brigadier-
General in the Confederate Army.

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, became a member of
the committee at the same time that I was placed on it; but, by
reason of my longer service in the Senate, according to the usual
custom, I outranked him.

Senator Lodge, by general consent I belie