John Wycliff had made his plans for remaining in Papyrus. Zechariah Baldwin had paid the full amount of John Wycliff’s legal demands. The latter, through the agency of his friend, Ford Hulbert, had purchased the Van Alstyne estate, comprising the old Van Alstyne homestead, numerous tenements located in different parts of the town, and several hundred acres of land on the outskirts of the town. It was the largest piece of real estate in Papyrus, except the Wesson Mills, which the all-devouring Baldwins had not secured. Scarcely had Wycliff moved his family into the old Van Alstyne homestead, when all his plans were upset by a letter from Colonel Lathrop, proposing that he remove to Emerald Valley, and giving very substantial reasons for such proposal. The Colonel wrote in part:-- “Senator Smith recently died, and Governor Brown offers me the appointment to the U. S. Senate until the Legislature meets, when it is reasonably sure that it will elect me for the remainder of Senator Smith’s unexpired term. Of course you will see the wisdom of having one of the owners of the Rattlesnake Mine resident here. I am not a statesman. I am not much of a politician, except that, in a large measure, I have footed the bills of my party here. My claims upon the people are two: First, as the father of irrigation in this region. Second, in partnership with yourself, as one of the owners of the leading gold mine in this section. “I should like to spend a year in the Millionaires’ Club, at Washington, and obtain the title of U. S. Senator for my old age. The Rattlesnake Mine, which now includes the Dead Open and Shut, is forging rapidly to the front of all gold-mining properties in the West, and there is scarcely a doubt that after I have completed the late Senator Smith’s term, you could be elected to succeed me. Money makes senators, and this is as true of the East as of the West in these days. “I remember, as a young man, you used to be proud of New England. You used to speak of the New England love of fair play, and you would grow eloquent in praise of the New England conscience. Haven’t you had enough of New England fair play? Do you want more of it? “I saw a leading Abolitionist dragged through the streets of Boston. I learned then where the New England conscience was, and is. It was, and is, inside the New England pocket-book. Had slavery been profitable in New England we should not have had the Civil War, and slavery would still be an American institution. I fought in that war, but I cannot close my eyes to the truth. There were soldiers under my command, who, as Northern laborers, were more to be pitied than the slaves on the better class of Southern plantations.