no Reminiscences of 



crisis came when argument and reason were unavail- 

 ing. If the AboHtion leaders and the fire-eaters, firing 

 at each other at long range, could have been confined 

 in some area, where they could have fought to the ex- 

 termination of each other, it would have been a great 

 blessing to the country, and the war could have been 

 averted by the action of sober reason by making a 

 proper valuation of the slaves to be paid for by the 

 general government, thus removing the primal cause 

 of conflict. This, however, could not have been 

 brought about at the time of President Lincoln's elec- 

 tion, for neither the North nor the South would have 

 consented to it. 



DISPOSING in the early part of 1865 of my com- 

 mercial interests, and experiencing the exhilara- 

 tion of a freedom I had long been denied, I resolved to 

 take my way to the Rocky Mountains, having read so 

 many accounts of adventurous life there from the in- 

 teresting sketches of the early pioneers. 



Before leaving for the West I concluded to take a 

 trip down to the Pennsylvania oil regions, which at 

 that time were creating much excitement. This I 

 fancied would be a rather agreeable excursion, but 

 found in it more peril than the one I soon afterwards 

 made across the great plains to the mountains. Before 

 the train I was on reached Titusville two miles distant 

 it came to a standstill from an excess of water over the 

 track. It had been raining for several days, and the 

 country was flooded. The train was in a sheet of 

 water several hundred feet from land, and as the water 

 was growing deeper — already so deep as to almost put 

 out the engine's fire — it was deemed expedient to hold 



