The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

FIEST TRUCK-ENGINE. 321
trade and travel between the Atlantic Ocean arid the Ohio River.
This line of railroad is a great work. It was originated by men
who had the capacity to conceive great designs and the courage
to execute them. The work is finished. The iron horse has trav-
elled on his iron pathway from the ' Monumental City ' over the
AUeghanies to this not long since frontier settlement, but now the
flourishing city of Wheeling. Here, in this room, are men who
have heard the warwhoop of the Indian on this very spot, and today
they have heard the shrill whistle of the locomotive. How
wonderful that such changes have come within the memory of
those who stUl live ! And this is a change which tells not of war
and carnage—not of cities desolated, and villages ruined, and
fields laid waste— ^but of the progress of the arts of peace, of the
advancement of a high order of civilization, and of the onward
course of the car of Christianity, freighted with innumerable blessings
for the whole world-wide family of man. ... I do most
cordially congratulate the people of Maryland and Virginia upon
the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It is one
lint in the chain which binds us together as a nation. "While
I am now speaking, the locomotive that drinks and smokes, and is
a ' fast fellow,' is thundering along on his iron track from the
' Queen City ' of Ohio, and from the far-off prairies of Illinois,
heading long trains freighted with men and the products of the
rich fields of the West to Eastern markets.
" As I stood last evening on the bank of the Ohio, looking at
the beautiful and magnificent iron bridge which spans the river
like a bow, and gemmed and sparkling as it was with a thousand
lights, I could bi;t believe that the tall pipes of the majestic
steamers would, in all coming time, bow as they passed to this
grand work of the genius of man. Last March, a goodly number
of the people of Cleveland and the Reserve were here to celebrate
the completion of the railroad from the Lake to Wellsville. We are
here to-night to rejoice over the advent of the iron horse from
Baltimore to Wheeling, and, before this year shall have passed
away, to be numbered with the years that have gone, we hope
the last link in the line of railroad between Baltimore and Cleveland
will be finished ; and then, in return for your energies and
enterprise and hospitality, we trust you may be invited to par-
take of true and genuine Yankee hospitality in the ' Forest City,'
'the City upon the Lake-shore,' and although the season may
make it winter without, we can assure you that the warmth of the
heart shall make it summer within."
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