It was held in October and I went with Douglas to attend it.  The proposition was the construction of a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific.  The delegates were mostly from the Mississippi valley, more than 800 in number, and Douglas made me a delegate from Illinois.  He was promptly elected to preside over the convention.  The first thing proposed was the construction of an emigrant route on the line of the proposed railroad.  This was in the interest of the gold seekers.  A delegate who said he had constructed more than 7000 miles of telegraph offered to string a wire to California if Congress would lend its aid.  There should be stations along the way, with troopers to defend the emigrants against Indians.  The troopers could carry the mails, thus insuring the delivery of a letter from St. Louis to San Francisco in twelve days.  Another delegate advised the convention that Charleston and New Orleans would soon be joined by telegraph.  As a means of communication, he proposed that for the sending of messages from Washington to Oregon, it could be done in fifteen days by transmitting a telegram by boat from New Orleans to Laredo, and thence by telegraph to some point on the Gulf of California; thence to San Francisco and to Washington or Oregon again by boat.

It was a vital, noisy assemblage of men; and Douglas was a perfect talent as a presiding officer.  His great voice could easily be heard over the entire hall and it seemed altogether fitting, since he had so long been interested in binding the country together with railroads and telegraphs, that he should be the spokesman of this body of men, who were inaugurating this magical transformation of America.

The lobby of the hotel was full of faces of all descriptions.  The millionaire was there, the countryman, the slave dealer, the man with the goatee.  The barrooms and corridors were noisy with excitement, loud talk of politics, of railroads, of trade, of slavery; denunciation of the Whigs, curses for the defeat of Cass.  I saw bloodshot eyes, reeling steps, coarseness, cruelty, wastefulness in drink.  Yankees and Dutch were denounced as trash and as cowards and traitors.  They had defeated the Democratic party the previous fall.  Plans were made on the moment among various excited groups to go to California.  A transcontinental line must be put through at once.

Amid this motley throng stood Douglas.  He glowed in the admiration he received.  He was acclaimed, cheered; his hand was taken in a rough and hearty manner by scores, wherever he stood or walked.  One moment he was talking with a group of men from Tennessee; again he was exchanging salutations with Captain Grant, who was here now without prospects, drinking too much, quite a sorry figure, lounging about waiting for something to turn up.  Not so with the dignified Major Sherman.  He had been to California, on field duty in the Mexican War.  Now well groomed and of fine bearing, he stood about the lobby interested