ave no possible value other than that arising from the
pine timber which stands on them."

Now, sir, who, after listening to this emphatic and unequivocal
testimony of these intelligent, competent and able-bodied witnesses
(laughter), who that is not as incredulous as St. Thomas himself, will
doubt for a moment that the Goshen of America is to be found in the
sandy valleys and upon the pine-clad hills of St. Croix? (Laughter.) Who
will have the hardihood to rise in his seat on this floor and assert
that, excepting the pine bushes, the entire region would not produce
vegetation enough in ten years to fatten a grasshopper? (Great
laughter.) Where is the patriot who is willing that his country shall
incur the peril of remaining another day without the amplest railroad
connection with such an inexhaustible mine of agricultural wealth?
(Laughter.) Who will answer for the consequences of abandoning a great
and warlike people, in possession of a country like that, to brood over
the indifference and neglect of their Government? (Laughter.) How long
would it be before they would take to studying the Declaration of
Independence, and hatching out the damnable heresy of secession? How
long before the grim demon of civil discord would rear again his horrid
head in our midst, "gnash loud his iron fangs, and shake his crest of
bristling bayonets"? (Laughter.)

Then, sir, think of the long and painful process of reconstruction that
must follow, with its concomitant amendments to the Constitution; the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth articles. The sixteenth, it is of
course understood, is to be appropriated to those blushing damsels who
are, day after day, beseeching us to let them vote, hold office, drink
cock-tails, ride astraddle, and do everything else the men do. (Roars of
laughter.) But above all, sir, let me implore you to reflect for a
single moment on the deplorable condition of our country in case of a
foreign war, with all our ports blockaded, all our cities in a state of
siege; the gaunt spectre of famine brooding like a hungry vulture over
our starving land; our commissary stores all exhausted, and our
famishing armies withering away in the field, a helpless prey to the
insatiate demon of hunger; our navy rotting in the docks for want of
provisions for our gallant seamen, and we without any railroad
communication whatever with the prolific pine thickets of the St. Croix.
(Great laughter.)

Ah, sir, I could very wel