that a man of his knowledge could direct his attention. to such subjects without benefit arising therefrom.

During the period he was engaged in his mining operations he spent a hundred thousand dollars of his private means on the improvement of the coal river, seeking to make the stream navigable for steamers of considerable tonnage and thus to avoid trans-shipment of cargoes from the barges which left Peytona, on their arrival in the Kenawha. He had not succeeded to the extent of his wishes when the civil war put a stop to his operations. A New York company on the joint stock or limited liability principle, which had been organized in Wall Street under his auspices, continued through the war to work the mines upon a minor scale, and, as far as the disorganized condition of the labour and business affairs of the country would admit, to carry on the work for improving the navigation of the river.

The perserving energy with which he prosecuted his labours on the Coal River for many years, was the subject of general remark. The great improvement which took place in this remote part of the country in the manners and customs of the earlier inhabitants, in the roads and other means of communication, in the development of industry, and the enhancement in the value of property, the legitimate results of his operations, caused him to be considered as a public benefactor, and his name to be everywhere revered by the warmhearted and affectionate mountaineers.

The fame he acquired by these operations, the

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success which attended his practical pursuits recalls Sallust's remark upon Cato, that the less he coveted glory, the more he acquired it.

Several joint-stock companies were organized in New York under his auspices for working the Peytona mines, which are, in 1873, in successful operation. During one of his business visits to New York, in 1861, he addressed the letter embodied in the next chapter to his old friend Mr. Rives, on the subject of the deplorable political situation and the impending crisis.

CHAPTER XII.

In the Autumn of 1860, the United States Presidential election occured, an event ordinary enough in itself, but which became the cause, or at least the occasion, of one of the greatest political revolutions which have ever changed the fortunes of a nation. A revolution it was which overwhelmed the South with disasters, greater far than those which conquests bring about, but which in the slow progress of events has been succeeded by a gradual bettering of the condition of the subdued people, and also by the elevation of a servile race to a position of political equality with their former masters. Placed after centuries of servitude in this new position, for which they had had no preparation, it remains yet to be proved that the African race is endowed by nature with any great mental vigor or aptitude for intellectual labour and improvement, such as is requisite for those who are invested with the rights of freemen and the responsibility of self government.

The fear so long entertained by patriots that at some inauspicious moment a storm would arise in the South,

where the public mind was greatly excited by Northern hostility to the extension of slavery, and end by steeping the country in blood and ruin, appeared, in the autumn of 1860, about to be realized. The secession so long and repeatedly threatened by South Carolina, but which she had never seriously contemplated carrying out, seemed at last imminent. The incredulity with which those threats had been received by union men north and south; the ridicule lavished upon the so called "Chivalry men," who were accused of indulging in the frothy effusions of demagogues-in low tricks and bluster to keep up their credit and consequence, operating with their real grievances, had goaded the Carolinians to desperation. The people of the Pelmetto State who had been so long upbraided for fickleness and perfidy, seemed at last ready for action, and a considerable portion of the South was prepared to follow their lead. The atmosphere was laden with electricity, the political sky overcast with clouds-the storm ready to burst upon the land. The immediate occasion of this breaking out of the public fury was the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. It does not belong to my plan to enter into the causes and consequences of this event. They are mentioned only in so far as they relate to, and bear upon, the subject of this sketch. Mr. Lincoln was chosen on 6th of November 1860, the vote standing thus,

For Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, 189, all northern votes.

For John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, 72 southern votes.

For John Bell, of Tennessee, 39, divided.

For Stephen A Douglas, of Illinois, 12, divided.

The whole number of electors appointed to vote for President for the United States was then 303, of which a majority is 152. Mr. Lincoln was, therefore, declared elected, and on the 8th of the following February left his home in the West, for Washington. This event increased the southern excitement; anxiety and alarm thickened the gloom which hung over and paralysed trade, commerce and manufactures north and south. The well known political views of South Carolina filled the country with apprehensions. In 1830, that State attempted to nullify the laws of Congress, to remain in the Union and yet act independently of its authority, and a conflict between the State and Federal troops was averted only by the firmness of President Jackson and the moderation of General Winfield Scott. Again in 1850, at the period when the admission of California was under discussion, it was proposed in the Legislature of South Carolina that a "Southern Congress" should be convoked to initiate measures for the defence of the South. A crisis was averted, however, by the adoption of what was termed the "Compromise Bill" principally through the influence of Henry Clay, but, though South Carolina acquiesced, she was annoyed, discontented, irritated. All the angry feelings which prompted this course in 1850 were intensified by the result of the Presidential election of 1860. Accordingly, the Legislature called a State convention to take such steps as might be deemed