bosom and be diverted perhaps from the great cities on the Atlantic
shore. I am willing that the whole country shall be improved and opened
for its best and most profitable occupation. This territory, whose
interests are affected by this, is greater than the whole of New
England. I am not afraid that whatever improvements may be made there
New England will be left out in the cold. Whatever conduces to the
prosperity of the West or South will benefit the East and North. We are
parts of one great whole, and, if it is necessary under a proper policy
to spend some money from the Treasury of the United States to meet the
wants of those States lying along the Mississippi River, I hope it will
not be begrudged to them, but it should not be done, and the Government
should not be committed, until the plans, have received a careful
consideration and the indorsement of the proper officers."

At the third session of the Forty-fifth Congress, Mr. Robinson, from his
minor place on the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of
Justice, introduced a bill relative to the mileage of United States
Marshals, which proposed an important reform.

In the Forty-sixth Congress, at the first session, Mr. Robinson, on
account of the marked abilities which he had shown as a lawyer and a
debater, was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee, a position
which he held through the Forty-sixth Congress with honor to his
district and his State. From the outset of the Forty-sixth Congress Mr.
Robinson, to the great surprise of many older members, who were not able
to fathom the mystery of the rules, took front rank as a debater on
points of order, and showed that his months of silent observation and of
earnest study had brought their fruit. His discussion of points of order
and of the rules was always characterized by good sense. He did not seek
to befog a question by an extensive quotation of authorities. He