the human mind, what other than magnificent results may be expected to flow from their deliberations and action. And when their work was done their principles proclaimed and their standard-bearers acclaimed,-why should not thirty thousand "hearts and voices" rush as it were into one, and with a feeling and enthusiasm knowing no bounds, pour forth a shout of ratification, rising above even the thunders of heaven?a shout which will be taken up and echoed and re-echoed throughout the free north, inspiriting and strengthening the great Republican army, and leading these to a certain and glorious triumph in the Presidential contest! As a manifestation of the strength and unity of popular sentiment in regard to the pro-slavery policy of the present Administration, its corruptions, and the outrages upon all righteous principles which have characterized it, this Convention was most remarkable. And, unless all signs go for nought, we are on the eve of a popular uprising and commotion which will gather strength with every succeeding day and week till November, when with an almost whirlwind force, the abusers of trust in the high places of the land, will be hurled into depths, which the hand of resurrection can never sound. I see distinctly now a Providence in the election of James Buchanan. It was permitted, that the cup of iniquity not then quite full, might be filled to overflowing; and that the people not then quite roused to a full sense of their wrongs and their danger, might with further and more complete manifestations of wickedness, and the nefarious designs of the Slave Oligarchy, be driven into a revolution more searching, and thorough and radical, with more enduring and beneficial results. This is my philosophy. And before the close of the administration of Abraham Lincoln, we may expect to see a movement for a satisfactory solution and settlement of the great problem-how Slavery is peacefully and satisfactorily to be disposed of. My view on this point accords with yours. Your plan is the only practicable one; and I am satisfied, when the present crisis is happily passed by the election and inauguration of a Republican president and administration, that the public mind will settle upon this plan and demand its adoption. It will be the grand issue before the lapse of two years. Our next

President (after Lincoln) will be elected on a colonization platform; and who our standard-bearer will be to lead us to victory on this great issue, it does not need a prophetic ken to determine. That Heaven may bless and preserve and strengthen him who it now seems to me, is its chosen instrument for this glorious work, in its prosecution and consummation, is the fervent desire of Yours, very respectfully and truly

C. C. SHOLES

It will gratify me much to have an occasional word from you.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF MAY, 1860

In the spring of 1860 I was secretary of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee. The president of the company was S. S. Daggett, a man seventy years of age and of great personal dignity and much ability. Both Mr. Daggett and myself, like most Westerners of New England origin, belonged to the Republican party and watched the growing forces of Republicanism with eager interest. Four years before, I had voted for John C. Frémont; since his defeat the Republican party had grown rapidly. Now with a divided Democracy there seemed hope that a Republican candidate might be elected. We therefore took great interest in the choice of the candidate for the party. Mr. Daggett and I favored the nomination of William H. Seward, but we were ready to support anyone whom the convention might nominate.

The convention met in Chicago in the middle of May. No building was large enough to hold the crowds that flocked there, so a temporary board structure was built, named the Wigwam, capable of accommodating some ten thousand people; more than half of them, however, had only standing room. Mr. Daggett proposed to me that we should visit the convention, but when we arrived on the morning of the second day we could obtain only standing room tickets. I have no clear recollection of the occurrences of the morning of our arrival; in the afternoon of the

second day, as I remember, there was a large mass meeting in front of the Wigwam which was addressed by William H. Seward. Mr. Daggett and I attended this meeting, and from the enthusiasm aroused by Seward we expected as well as hoped that he would secure the nomination.

On the morning of the third day we hurried to the convention and were present when the balloting began. The Wigwam was packed to its utmost capacity, so that there was hardly room to hold the tally sheets that each one wanted to keep for himself as the ballots were announced. As the roll of the states was called, the chairman of each delegation presented the name of that state's candidate, which was hailed with cheers and shouts until a great tide of emotion was aroused. When Illinois presented the name of Abraham Lincoln I was much surprised at the demonstration that occurred; however, when Seward was nominated by New York he seemed to awaken even greater enthusiasm. Salmon P. Chase was Ohio's favorite son; Edward Bates was Missouri's choice; Pennsylvania presented Simon Cameron. On the first ballot Seward had more votes then any of the others, but not enough for a nomination. Before the second ballot was taken Simon Cameron withdrew his name and his votes went to Lincoln, who then almost equaled Seward's vote. With the third ballot the excitement grew intense; state after state turned over to Lincoln, and he seemed likely to succeed; but we who had been keeping tab found as the last vote was cast that he was two votes short of the number necessary to nominate. Then just before the figures of the ballot were to be announced Cartter of the Ohio delegation got the floor and shouted, "Ohio changes four votes from Salmon P. Chase to Abraham Lincoln." With that such a wave of emotion swept over the vast audience as I have never seen in all my experience; women threw up their parasols and men their hats. Though we were packed in so that we could scarcely move, my companion, Mr. Daggett, danced up and down like a boy. One man standing beside us down whose face the tears were pouring in streams cried out, "I can't help it! I can't help it! I've been working for him a week and I didn't really hope for it." Another old man near us began to shout at

the top of his voice, "Glory, Glory Hallelujah! Now Lord, lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen the redemption of Egypt" (as southern Illinois was then called).

Meanwhile the chairman of the New York delegation secured the eye of the chairman of the convention, George Ashmun of Massachusetts, and moved that the vote for Abraham Lincoln be made unanimous. With that the enthusiasm broke out afresh and continued until the audience was fairly exhausted.

Mr. Daggett and I returned to Milwaukee enthusiastic for the election of Lincoln. As the months went on we were more and more convinced that the Chicago convention had been guided to the right choice at that crisis in our country's history. AMHERST W. KELLOGG

INCREASE ALLEN LAPHAM, FATHER OF FOREST
CONSERVATION

The father of forest conservation in Wisconsin was the state's first, and in many respects, still, foremost, scholar, Increase Allen Lapham. This quiet, modest man, the impress of whose genius was indelibly stamped upon the developing institutions of the new territory and state, was wholly self-made and largely self-educated. Born in New York in 1811, the son of a civil engineer employed in canal work, he became, almost in boyhood, an engineer, and this profession he followed through life. His avocation, likewise from boyhood, was the pursuit of knowledge, particularly along the line of the natural sciences.

The remarkable thing about Increase Lapham was his versatility of mind coupled with his ability to perceive, well in advance of his age, the scientific and social desires and demands of the future. Thus we find him, still a mere youth, almost a century ago pointing to the need for a cyclopædia of American agriculture and proposing a well-thought-out scheme for bringing one into existence. The thing was not accomplished, of course, because Lapham was half a century or so in advance of his time, and his project evoked, therefore, no response on the part of the public he labored to benefit. Again, Lapham's appreciation of the scientific and cultural value to society of the

]

Indian mounds of Wisconsin, coupled with his perception of the fact that with the settlement of the state they would rapidly be destroyed, led him seventy years ago to make without any compensation (although a poor man) a comprehensive survey of the Indian remains of the state. Published by the Smithsonian Institution, this survey will forever stand a monument to his zeal and scholarship. How far in advance of his age was Lapham's interest in this matter may be most easily indicated, perhaps, by calling attention to the fact that the state's most notable Indian earthworks, the famous Aztalan mounds, were permitted to pass under private ownership and cultivation for want of a paltry fifteen or twenty dollars to save them; while today, after three generations, the public is belatedly attempting to secure possession of what remains intact of these mounds after seventy-five years of cultivation as farm land.

We need not be surprised, therefore, that Increase Lapham, modest citizen of Milwaukee, began to agitate for the preservation of our forest wealth far in advance of anyone else, and at a time when Wisconsin's splendid forests, the beneficent gift of a thousand years of striving on the part of nature, still stood intact. But his voice went unheeded and Wisconsin spent her forest wealth like a prodigal son his portion. What should have sufficed to accommodate amply the needs of untold generations was slaughtered in the short space of two. Now, with our white pine and other splendid timber but a memory, our logging industry already become a thing of romance and tradition, with the cost of building a national menace, and the scarcity of fuel threatening at times to involve a national disaster, we are beginning to give heed to the considerations so forcibly advanced by Lapham three-quarters of a century ago.

Lapham's first effort to interest the public in forest conservation took the form of a contribution to the Transactions of the State Agricultural Society in 1855 of a treatise on the forest trees of Wisconsin. It consisted of a nine-page argument setting forth the desirability of conserving the state's resources in trees, followed by a detailed account of the sixty varieties of trees indigenous to the state.