This work documents journalist Samuel Bowles’ journey across the United States in the summer of 1865, traveling with Schuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and future Vice President. The book blends journalistic reportage, social commentary, and travel writing, covering: The Rocky Mountains The Utah Territory and Mormon society California and the Pacific Coast states Observations on Reconstruction-era America, Native peoples, western expansion, and the early post–Civil War landscape Bowles was the editor of the Springfield Republican and brought a reformist, Eastern liberal perspective to the frontier.