These machines were to be taken outside the bar; the
compartments were to be filled with water and the camels sunk. The
whale ship was then to be floated over the camel and the water was then
to be pumped out of the compartments when the camel would rise with the
ship on its back and carry the whaler into the harbor.
The scheme seemed a wild one, but opinions were controlled by party
feeling. The bill passed, the camels were built, and the scheme failed
as a practical measure. Nantucket was doomed as a trading and
commercial town. As a watering place it had a future. In one of the
debates upon corporations Robinson took part, perhaps upon the
Nantucket "camel" question, and made the best speech to which I have
ever listened in defense of the system.
The corporation system has yielded larger returns to Massachusetts
than she has received from any other feature of her domestic policy,
excepting only her system of public instruction.
Robinson lived, probably, on the verge of insanity, to which end he
came finally. When a member of the House, he was restless, almost
constantly walking in the area or through the aisles, running his
hands through his long black hair, engaged apparently in meditation
upon topics outside of the business of the House.
He is immortalized in Lowell's "Biglow Papers,"
"John P.
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