Part 15 (1/2)
His hope of great wealth had not been realized. His iron mills in Pennsylvania had been destroyed by Lee's army. He had developed the habit of gambling, which brought its train of extravagant habits, tastes, and inevitable debts. In his vigorous manhood, in spite of his lameness, he had kept a pack of hounds and a stable of fine horses. He had used his skill in shoemaking to construct a set of stirrups to fit his lame feet, and had become an expert hunter to hounds.
One thing he never neglected--to be in his seat in the House of Representatives and wear its royal crown of leaders.h.i.+p, sick or well, day or night. The love of power was the breath of his nostrils, and his ambitions had at one time been boundless. His enormous power to-day was due to the fact that he had given up all hope of office beyond the robes of the king of his party. He had been offered a cabinet position by the elder Harrison and for some reason it had been withdrawn. He had been promised a place in Lincoln's cabinet, but some mysterious power had s.n.a.t.c.hed it away. He was the one great man who had now no ambition for which to trim and fawn and lie, and for the very reason that he had abolished himself he was the most powerful leader who ever walked the halls of Congress.
His contempt for public opinion was boundless. Bold, original, scornful of advice, of all the men who ever lived in our history he was the one man born to rule in the chaos which followed the a.s.sa.s.sination of the chief magistrate.
Audacity was stamped in every line of his magnificent head. His choicest curses were for the cowards of his own party before whose blanched faces he shouted out the hidden things until they sank back in helpless silence and dismay. His speech was curt, his humour sardonic, his wit biting, cruel, and coa.r.s.e.
The incarnate soul of revolution, he despised convention and ridiculed respectability.
There was but one weak spot in his armour--and the world never suspected it: the consuming pa.s.sion with which he loved his two children. This was the side of his nature he had hidden from the eyes of man. A refined egotism, this pa.s.sion, perhaps--for he meant to live his own life over in them--yet it was the one utterly human and lovable thing about him. And if his public policy was one of stupendous avarice, this dream of millions of confiscated wealth he meant to seize, it was not for himself but for his children.
As he looked at Howle and Lynch seated in his library after dinner, with his great plans seething in his brain, his eyes were flas.h.i.+ng, intense, and fiery, yet without colour--simply two centres of cold light.
”Gentlemen,” he said at length. ”I am going to ask you to undertake for the Government, the Nation, and yourselves a dangerous and important mission. I say yourselves, because, in spite of all our beautiful lies, self is the centre of all human action. Mr. Lincoln has fortunately gone to his reward--fortunately for him and for his country. His death was necessary to save his life. He was a useful man living, more useful dead.
Our party has lost its first President, but gained a G.o.d--why mourn?”
”We will recover from our grief,” said Howle.
The old man went on, ignoring the interruption:
”Things have somehow come my way. I am almost persuaded late in life that the G.o.ds love me. The insane fury of the North against the South for a crime which they were the last people on earth to dream of committing is, of course, a power to be used--but with caution. The first execution of a Southern leader on such an idiotic charge would produce a revolution of sentiment. The people are an aggregation of hysterical fools.”
”I thought you favoured the execution of the leaders of the rebellion?”
said Lynch with surprise.
”I did, but it is too late. Had they been tried by drum-head court-martial and shot dead red-handed as they stood on the field in their uniforms, all would have been well. Now sentiment is too strong. Grant showed his teeth to Stanton and he backed down from Lee's arrest. Sherman refused to shake hands with Stanton on the grandstand the day his army pa.s.sed in review, and it's a wonder he didn't knock him down. Sherman was denounced as a renegade and traitor for giving Joseph E. Johnston the terms Lincoln ordered him to give. Lincoln dead, his terms are treason! Yet had he lived, we should have been called upon to applaud his mercy and patriotism. How can a man live in this world and keep his face straight?”
”I believe G.o.d permitted Mr. Lincoln's death to give the great Commoner, the Leader of Leaders, the right of way,” cried Lynch with enthusiasm.
The old man smiled. With all his fierce spirit he was as susceptible to flattery as a woman--far more so than the sleek brown woman who carried the keys of his house.
”The man at the other end of the avenue, who pretends to be President, in reality an alien of the conquered province of Tennessee, is pressing Lincoln's plan of 'restoring' the Union. He has organized State governments in the South, and their senators and representatives will appear at the Capitol in December for admission to Congress. He thinks they will enter----”
The old man broke into a low laugh and rubbed his hands.
”My full plans are not for discussion at this juncture. Suffice it to say, I mean to secure the future of our party and the safety of this nation.
The one thing on which the success of my plan absolutely depends is the confiscation of the millions of acres of land owned by the white people of the South and its division among the negroes and those who fought and suffered in this war----”
The old Commoner paused, pursed his lips, and fumbled his hands a moment, the nostrils of his eagle-beaked nose breathing rapacity, sensuality throbbing in his ma.s.sive jaws, and despotism frowning from his heavy brows.
”Stanton will probably add to the hilarity of nations, and amuse himself by hanging a few rebels,” he went on, ”but we will address ourselves to serious work. All men have their price, including the present company, with due apologies to the speaker----”
Howle's eyes danced, and he licked his lips.
”If I haven't suffered in this war, who has?”