Part 9 (2/2)

Down to the actual secession of 1860-61 the issue of issues--the issue behind all issues--was the preservation of the Union Between 1820 and 1850, by a series of coely the work of Mr Clay, its threatened disruption had been averted The Kansas-Nebraska Bill put a sore strain upon conservative ele Party went to pieces Mr Clay passed from the scene Had he lived until the presidential election of 1852 he would have given his support to Franklin Pierce, as Daniel Webster did Mr Buchanan was not a General Jackson Judge Douglas, who sought to play the role of Mr Clay, was too late The secession leaders held the whip hand in the Gulf States South Carolina was to have her will at last Crash came the shot in Charleston Harbor and the fall of Suh two persons of Kentucky birth--Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis--led the rival hosts of war into which an untenable and indefensible system of slave labor, for which the two sections were equally responsible, had precipitated an unwilling people

Had Judge Douglas lived he would have been Mr Lincoln's ress As a debater his resources and proere rarely equaled and never surpassed His personality, whether in debate or private conversation, was attractive in the highest degree He possessed a full,fervor and ready wit

He hadbelle of the National Capital, a great-niece of Mrs Madison, whose very natural ambitions quickened and spurred his own

It was fated otherwise Like Clay, Webster, Calhoun and Blaine he was to be denied the Presidency The White House was barred to his of his death took the country by surprise But already the sectional battle was on and it produced only a otten arave now nearly sixty years Upon the legislation of his time his name rit first in water and then in blood He received less than his desert in life and the historic record has scarcely done justice to his reat a party leader as Clay He could hold his own in debate with Webster and Calhoun He died a very poor itih to say that he lacked the business instinct and set no value uponhis senatorial duties above all price and beyond the suspicion of dirt

Touching a matter which involved a certain outlay in the winter of 1861, he laughingly said to me: ”I haven't the ithal to pay for a bottle of whisky and shall have to borrow of Arnold Harris the ithal to take lorious creature Early one las I was ushered into the library, where she was engaged setting things to rights My entrance took her by surprise I had often seen her in full ballroohaown and white apron, she turned, a little startled by my sudden appearance, sht I had never seen any woossip said she had thrown over to las--and the story went that her second e was not very happy

IV

In thethe newsland and France had displayed activity in that quarter and it was deemed important that the United States should sit up and take notice An Isth considered

Speculation was rife who of the National Capital was all at sea There was scarcely a Democratic leader of national proh speculation from day to day eddied round Mr

James S Rollins, of Missouri, an especial friend of the President and a ht of excitement I happened to be in the library of the State Department I was on a step-ladder in quest of a book when I heard a er say to the librarian: ”The President is in the Secretary's rooht away” An inspiration shot through me like a flash They had chosen Alexander Dimitry for the Central American Mission

He was the official translator of the Departh an able and learned man he was not in the line of prefer of any sort At first blush a ested But--so on the instant I reasoned--he was peculiarly fitted in his own person for the post in question Though of Greek origin he looked like a Spaniard

He spoke the Spanish language fluently He had the procedure of the State Depart doirls in Washi+ngton Why not?

I climbed down from my stepladder and made tracks for the office of the afternoon newspaper for which I was doing all-round work I was barely on tiot there I had the editorial page opened and inserted at the top of the leading coluony was over--that the Gordian knot was cut--that Alexander Dimitry had been selected as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Central American States

It proved a veritable sensation as well as a notable scoop To increase lory the correspondents of the New York dailies scouted it But in a day or two it was officially confirmed General Cass, the Secretary of State, sent forlearned that I had been in the department about the time of the consultation between the President, hiet this?” he asked rather sharply

”Out of my inner consciousness,” I answered with flippant familiarity

”Didn't you know that I have what they call second sight?”

The old gentlehed amiably ”It would seem so,” he said, and sent me about my business without further inquiry

V

In the National Capital the winter of 1860-61 was both storress had learned the trick of bullying from the Southerners In the Senate, Chandler was a match for Toombs; and in the House, Thaddeus Stevens for Keitt and Laame If sectional hich was incessantly threatened by the two extreht have been averted Very few believed that it would come to actual war