If Douglas had the slavocracy back of him and catered to it, he did not have plutocracy back of him.  If he had been a demagogue he would have done the bidding of some faction.  He did the bidding of no faction.  His mind was budding with railroads now, for the Far West.  What he was now doing made for a money control of the country in the future; but that was not apparent to him.  What one of us saw that we could not make an ocean-bound republic without a supremacy of wealth, even if it was brought about by a plebiscite?  This did not make it democratic.

It was at this time that Mother Clayton’s health began to be frail, and Dorothy was by no means strong.  The winters in Chicago had been very trying upon both of them.  Just now I had so many interests that I could not leave the city.  But Mother Clayton wished to return to Nashville for a few months, and Dorothy decided to go with her.  Our boy was not as robust as we should have wished.  Mammy, by no means to be left out of our consideration, was aging and longed for the old scenes of Nashville.  We closed our house, and I went to the hotel.  Then Abigail and Aldington were married.  They went abroad to study European conditions.  Thus the most of my associations were interrupted.  All but those I had with Douglas.

To go to Nashville was an inconvenient trip, but I made it on several occasions.  Once on a mission of deep sorrow.  Mother Clayton died in June just as she and Dorothy were preparing to join me in Chicago.  I was thinking of going to California on account of the gold discoveries.  So I brought Dorothy and Mammy back, although Mammy was very old and could not be of much service.

Thousands were turning their faces to the West.  How to get there, how to equip oneself, were the questions.  Some went by Cape Horn, some by the Isthmus of Panama, some by the overland route.  Thousands joined companies.  Others bought ships or chartered them.  The wildest of rumors spread of the richness of the discoveries.  Fabulous reports of fabulous prices and wages in California were scattered broadcast.  I wanted to go.  But why, after all?  I could get richer, but why get richer?  Besides, there were my interests and Dorothy.  I felt the adventurer stir within me, and talked with Douglas about going.  He did not wish me to leave Chicago.  What soil could be richer than that south of Madison Street?  Besides, he was working on the Illinois Central railroad project, and that would mean all the money that I would care for, if I would take advantage of the opportunities which the railroad would create.  Then there were the transcontinental lines to be built.  A convention was soon to be held in St. Louis, and Douglas wished me to go along with him.