is that they shall follow us in peace and prosperity.

"The construction of the great canal across the isthmus of Panama
will bind them closer to us, and at the same time will almost double
our strength as a naval power.

"Too much credit cannot be given to President Roosevelt for the
great and wonderful results which he has accomplished in the interest
of the country, but the legislative branch of the Government has
done its full share.

"The record made during the last session of Congress in the enactment
of wise laws for the direct benefit of the people has not been
equalled since the Civil War--if at all, since the adoption of the
Constitution.

"I will not detain the caucus longer than to repeat my sincere
obligations to you and to express through you my thanks to the
people of the State, whose representatives you are, for the signal
honor that has been conferred upon me."

CHAPTER XXXIV
CONCLUSION

Generally I might say that I am quite content; but as I sit down
now in the evening time of my life, it is a source of sadness and
wonder to me that I have survived both my wives and all of my
children. One by one I have laid them away in beautiful Oak Ridge
Cemetery, in Springfield, where I myself will one day be laid beside
them. I have had a delightful home life; no man could have had a
more happy and peaceful one. As I look back now, I cannot remember
that either wife or children ever caused me one moment's pain. I
was twice married. My first wife, Hannah M. Fisher, to whom I was
married in 1855, and who died in 1861, was of a very amiable spirit,
a woman of more than ordinary culture, and was the mother of my
first two children, Mrs. Ridgely and Mrs. Hardie, who lived to
womanhood, but both of whom have passed away. My second wife,
Julia Fisher, was the sister of my first wife. No better or truer
woman ever lived. She was a devoted helpmate to me during all the
years that I have occupied high public office and needed the support
and help of a woman. She did her full part and filled her place
on every occasion with dignity and propriety. It seems that her
death is the last great sorrow I shall have to bear.

The memory of the children whom I lost in their infancy is naturally
dimmed by the passage of time, but it is hard for me to understand
the justice of things when I remember the death of my two daughters,
Ella, wife of William Barret Ridgely, and Carrie, wife of Robert
Gordon Hardie, who