360 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



history, wit, and humor, preparing us for voting to grant 

 your appropriation. 



As I told you, my state has no interest in a river and 

 harbor bill, and yet I never voted against one, because I 

 recognize the fact that these harbors, rivers, canals, light 

 houses, and various other improvements upon our coasts 

 are simply the means of conveying our excess products 

 out of the country. They are the outposts of that great 

 center, the Mississippi Valley, which is in the future to 

 dominate this country. I speak not in a political sense. 

 There is the center; and when Thomas H. Benton, in the 

 Senate, turned his face to the West and pointed, saying, 

 "There is the East; there lies India," he spoke in pro- 

 phetic tones. Upon the pedestal of his statue, which 

 stands near the grounds of the great Exposition, which 

 you will all visit in the West this year, is inscribed that 

 immortal sentence. 



But, gentlemen, I will not detain you longer at this late 

 hour. Some of these other men will tell you how they 

 will vote. I tell you how I feel, and you will have to in- 

 fer how I will vote. 



