CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



This was the first formal recognition of Chicago 

 by Congress, and gave the greatest possible 

 amount of delight and reassurance to its citizens. 

 Abraham Lincoln, who had just been elected to 

 Congress, was there; and Horace Greeley and 

 Thurlow Weed. There was a grand procession 

 in the muddy little main street. A ship under 

 full sail was hauled through the city on wheels. 

 The newly organized firemen, in the glory of 

 red shirts and leather hats, threw a stream of 

 water over the flag-staff in the public square, 

 and Thurlow Weed, in a peroration that aroused 

 the utmost enthusiasm, prophesied that "on the 

 shores of these lakes is a vast country that will 

 in fifty years support one-quarter of a million 

 people." It is interesting to notice that had 

 Thurlow Weed lived fifty years after the delivery 

 of that optimistic prophecy, he would have seen 

 one-quarter of a million school children in the 

 city of Chicago alone. 



As a matter of history, the arrival of McCor- 

 mick was a much more important event for 

 Chicago than the "River and Harbor Conven- 

 tion." He was the first of its big manufacturers. 



[72] 



