Thoreau writes in his journal:
Madison, capital & 4 lakes (Thoreau’s Minnesota Journey, 24-25).
Horace Mann Jr. writes to his mother Mary:
As I am writing while the cars are going, I cannot do it up very well, but I will try to make it readable.
We left Red-Wing yesterday at about 2 P.M. on the Steamer War Eagle and arrived in Prairie du Chien at 8 P.M. to-day. The train for Milwaukee did not leave till 10 o’clock so we had to wait a while. It is rather cooler today than we have had for some time so it is very comfortable travelling. We passed through Madison at 1:30 P.M. and shall arrive in Milwaukee at 6 o’clock this evening If we can find a boat going to mackinaw we shall take it immediately, if not, we shall wait until one does go, which will be in the course of a day anyhow, I suppose. There has been a riot in Milwaukee of which I suppose you have read long before this, but the Milwaukee paper says to-day that the city is quiet.
For the first 60 or 70 miles of travel to-day we kept in the valley of the Wisconsin River, which we crossed three times . . . You may think that I can write better, but I cannot, for this is one of the roughest roads I ever rode over. Madison is a very pretty place I should think and the lakes which surround it (stopping at Palmyra) are very beautiful. The state house is a large building standing on a rise of ground near the track as we enter the city; it is built out of dark cream colored limestone, which can be quarried all over that section of the state. I have nothing more to say now so Goodbye.
From your loving son
Horace Mann
