SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 273 



from Cincinnati to Columbus is nearly all Macadamized, 

 and from thence, or rather from Springfield to Wheeling, 

 we roll in ease and comfort, at great speed, along the 

 great National road that was designed to connect the 

 east with the far west. As an evidence that the roads 

 are not quite impassable, I have only to state that I took 

 the "fast mail" at 11 o'clock on Friday at Cincinnati, and 

 on Monday night I slept at the "relay house," nine miles 

 from Baltimore, traveling by stage all the way, except 

 the short distance from Frederick to the junction of the 

 Washington City Road. 



The passes of the almost impassable Alleghanies, have 

 been made passable, and are daily passed by a host of 

 passengers with great speed, if not great safety ; for the 

 truth is, that fear of accident does not seem to be a part 

 of the composition of the drivers over these dangerous 

 mountain roads, for they crack the whip and rattle down 

 the long declivities much after the manner that we are 

 all heedlessly rattling through the world. We are all 

 sure to reach the end of the road, but not always "right 

 side up with care." 



It was with no small degree of interest that I looked 

 upon these hills piled on hills. For 16 years I had been 

 treading the fertile plains of the west, and in all that 

 time had not seen an eminence worthy of the name of 

 mountain. Here were old acquaintance that should never 

 be forget. And here upon every little spot of level 

 ground was perched the hut of a hardy mountaineer, as 

 blythe, as happy and contented as him who could count 

 his thousands of acres of far more fertile and feasible 

 soil of the west. I could not but ask, "why do you toil 

 here upon these rocks and hills?" and yet perhaps I 

 should do wrong to urge them to give up situations, with 

 which they are content, for the more promising plains 

 that spread out invitingly and uncultivated away beyond 

 the "beautiful river." 



Of my doings at Washington in regard to the contem- 

 plated National Society, you are acquainted. Of the state 



