By JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT.
James Proctor Knott was born in Kentucky on August 29, 1830. He went to Missouri in 1850 and there began the practise of law. In 1858 he was elected to the Missouri Legislature and subsequently he became attorney-general. He returned to Kentucky in 1862 and was elected to Congress from that State in 1866. It was while in Congress that Mr. Knott attained national fame as a humorist. As a satirist he had no equal among his fellow members, and he was responsible for several bills being "laughed out of the House."
Mr. Knott's most famous speech was delivered in the House of Representatives, January 27, 1871, on the joint resolution extending the time to construct a railroad from the St. Croix River to the west end of Lake Superior. At that time Duluth was a small and almost unknown village. Knott's grandiloquent forecast of its future, intended as a satire, has since been in great part verified by the city's wonderful development. It now has a population of more than fifty-five thousand persons, and as one of the principal shipping points of the great Northwestern grain-fields it is world-famous.
Of this speech, which has long been regarded as a model of its kind, an abridged version is given below. The complete text may be found in the third section of the appendix of the Congressional Globe for 1870-1871, beginning on page 68.
Mr. Speaker: As to those great trunk-lines of railway spanning the continent from ocean to ocean, I confess my mind has never been fully made up. But with regard to the transcendent merits of the gigantic enterprise contemplated in this bill—to construct a railroad from the St. Croix River, or lake, to the west end of Lake Superior and to Bayfield—I never entertained a shadow of a doubt.
Now, sir, 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 the St. Croix?
Sir, I have been satisfied for years that if there was any portion of the inhabited globe absolutely in a suffering condition for a railroad, it was these teeming pine-barrens of the St. Croix.
At what particular point on that noble stream such a road should be commenced I knew was immaterial, and so it seems to have been considered by the draftsman of this bill. It might be up at the spring or down at the foot-log, or the water-gate, or the fish-dam, or anywhere along the bank, no matter where. But in what direction should it run, or where should it terminate, were always to my mind questions of the most painful perplexity, until I accidentally overheard some gentlemen the other day mention the name of "Duluth."
Duluth! The word fell on my ear with a peculiar and indescribable charm, like the gentle murmur of a low fountain stealing forth in the midst of roses, or the soft, sweet accent of an angel's whisper in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping innocence.
Duluth! 'Twas the name for which my soul had panted for years, as the hart panteth for the water-brooks. But where was Duluth?