238 SPECULATION. 



nation that had constructed the vast 

 number of miles and the various ramifi- 

 cations of our railroads. 



He would not perhaps, like the French 

 philosopher, set them down as the cause, 

 but as the effects of our civilization. 

 Neither would he discover, in his ad- 

 miration of their adaptation to the wants 

 of a great trading community, that, for 

 the most part they were conceived in 

 error born in misrepresentation and false- 

 hood reared in malversation and fraud, 

 and attained their present growth by 

 monopoly and injustice. 



But the injury done to those who have 

 suffered by the change, is as nothing 

 compared to those deluded victims who 

 first became the dupes of designing men, 

 in being induced to risk their little, or 

 their all, in extravagant speculations 

 that were at once to ensure fortune 

 to the lucky adventurer, but resulted 

 only in their total and irremediable ruin.* 



* The great distress and ruin that followed the immense 



