The talk very naturally turned upon our troubles with England, and France, especially England, since the last seizure of our vessels had been made by that country, and all, except the Federalists of New England, had be gun to look upon her as our chief enemy, forced to such a belief by the threatening events which were occurring almost every day. The views of these men were very different from those of Major Northcote, and it was easy to see that the things which were his ambition could never become theirs. Only one voice was heard to pro-
A MEETING BY THE E1VER. 41
test against the general condemnation of the old country, and it was that of Adams, though he objected mildly and soon became silent in the face of the fierce attack that he invited.
The conversation was interrupted by Wilson, the Pennsylvanian, who produced a bundle of English news papers come over in the last mail.
" I've a trading uncle over in London," said Wilson, " trying to get some satisfaction for two ships of his seized in the Baltic by English cruisers and confiscated more than a year ago. He sent me these papers to show what lovely things our kind and affectionate blood kin are saying about us. There's the Courier and the Times and the Post; in fact, all the London papers and a dozen or so from the provincial cities. I've marked the articles about us. Would you like to have me read some of them?"
" Yes, yes! read them! "
" Which will you have first? "
" Head something from the Courier," said Courtenay. " That's their ministerial organ and perhaps we can tell from it what their Government thinks."
" All right," said Wilson. " Here's an editorial ar ticle on our financial honour, or rather our lack of it, as the Courier thinks or pretends to think. Listen! "
Then he read a lot of trash which made my blood hot, trash and lies though I knew it was, and I think that every one present must have felt as I.
" There is no honour among the merchants and trad ers of the United States," said the newspaper. " They are trying to build up a great commerce and great wealth in defiance of the powers of Europe, and they stop at no falsehood or trickery to achieve their purpose, and they know nothing of the sacredness of contracts."
A full half column closed with a strong appeal to the Briti sh Government to crush utterly this impertinent trade, which was proving so annoying to blufl and honest
4
4:2 A HERALD OF THE WEST.
Britons. " Let the mistress of the seas/' said the pa per, " prove that she really and truly reigns over her own."
" That isn't so very bad," said Mercer. " It's mild compared with some others that I have read. I suppose we ought to recognise that all the seas, including the bays and inlets that have the misfortune to project into our own country, are England's exclusive and private property, and we should get a permit from her every time we presume to set a ship sailing over salt water."
" It's come to that already," said Sanford. " I've seen her fleets watching at the entrance of the harbours of New York and Norfolk, and I saw them bring in the dead sailors whom she murdered on the Chesapeake."
The senators and members of the House were silent, thinking, perhaps, it was best for them not to discuss such affairs in so promiscuous a company, but I could see the flush of anger on some of their faces, and as they made no criticism of our proceedings I suggested to Wilson that he read more.
" Here's an article from the Times," he said. " ' Bar barians ' is the pet name of the Times for us. This one is on the ridiculous pretensions of the ' barbarians,' and has special reference to our navy. That ought to be of great interest to you, Charlton."
Charlton was a junior naval officer on shore leave just then.
" Eead it," he said, all attention.
" I'll condense it for you," said Wilson. " The Times says in effect that while all the pretensions of the American barbarians are ridiculous, the most ridiculous of all is the idea some of them seem to have of making war upon Great Britain. It calls attention to the fact that the British fleets upon the American coast already outnumber the whole American navy at least five to one in ships, guns, and men. It says that in case of war not an American ship would dare to come from port, and Eng-
A MEETING BY THE RIVER. 43
land could have nothing to fear from a few bundles of iir planks under a striped rag."
Charlton was red with wrath.
" All we ask is a chance against them, ship for ship! " he cried. " See what we did against the Barbary cor sairs and against the French in '98! If Mr. Jefferson hadn't been so crazy with his gunboat policy we would have a fine fleet now, and could make it a war on their shores, and not on ours."
Wilson read the other articles. They were all of the same kind, full of savage abuse and direct falsehood, or a kernel of truth swelled into a mountain of untruth. It is a fact that after failing to conquer us in our Eevo- lutionary war the English set out to defame us before all the world in their books and their newspapers and through their public speakers, and now they affect to wonder why so many of us do not like them. I admit that we had many friends among the English the best nation in Europe in spite of all that has happened but they could not make their views heard amid the storm of abuse.
I felt pained and depressed. I was one who had been willing to see the old breach between England and us caused by the Revolution healed up, and the two Anglo- Saxon nations go forward as friends to a great destiny, and that it was not so, I believed, with all others of the West, was almost wholly the fault of England. It seemed a bitter thing to me that the fiercest and falsest abuse of us should come from the land of our ancestors, and I felt my anger against England rising, though I could not forget the great deeds of her history, and that often she had been the champion of liberty and free dom in Europe though not then.
Not caring to hear more, I left the table and went out into the fresh air. Mercer overtook me there and showed that he was in a sour humour, saying that all of us were for war with Great Britain and we wished it declared at once, but made no preparations to fight it. He sup-
44 A HERALD OF THE WEST.
posed, so he said, that we had reached the summit of human wisdom and could carry on war victoriously with out an army, navy, or military resources. It was one of the virtues of the new republic to overcome everything with enthusiasm, which would stop no cannon balls.
" Nevertheless," he said, " the people are for war, and so are you antf. so am I; we are all fools together."
I left him to vent the rest of his ill humour upon whomsoever else he might meet, and returned to the office, where I found Mr. Gallatin ahead of me, and with docu ments already a foot deep around him. The thoughts of most people in Washington must have been on the same subject that day, for after an hour of hard work, in which the silence of the room was interrupted only by the rustling of paper and the scratching of pens, Mr. Gallatin turned suddenly to me and said:
" You are in favour of making war on England, are you not, Mr. Ten Broeck? "
" Yes."
He said not another word, but I noticed presently that the character of the papers he passed over to me for classification and filing was changing, and seemed to bear upon the topic that everybody was discussing then. A document that crinkled in my hands as I smoothed it out was a petition from the people of Ohio for two addi tional regiments of regular troops to help defend them against the expected attack of the Northwestern tribes.
" A legitimate request, is it not? " said the Secretary carelessly.
" Yes."
" So the Secretary of War thought, and he referred it to me, as I am expected to furnish the money to pay for the regiments. Of course you, as my clerk, know where the money is to be found."
" No, I do not."
" Hm! That is bad. What is the manuscript which you are tying up so carefully? "
A MEETING BY THE RIVER. 45
"A recommendation to the Government, signed by most of the substantial people of Baltimore, that, owing to the probability of war, we ought to begin at once t
he construction of six line of battle ships. They say that these ships would be useful as a peace measure; that the fear of them would deter our enemies from attacking us, and if war should come anyhow they would be extremely useful for fighting."
"Very well put. A line of battle ship would cost about a half million dollars, and six would cost three millions. Not quite so much as our whole annual ex penditure, but an addition nevertheless. Of course, you could find the money for these ships in the Treasury, could you not ? "
" No."
There was no satiric twinkle in his eye and no curve of his mouth to indicate humour, but I knew well his purpose, for he continued to pass to me documents which showed our want of money to do the things that the country demanded demands often reasonable, even wise enough, had there been any one to pay for doing them. I understand his motive now better perhaps than I did then, for I know that there come times even to old men in high station when they wish to justify themselves in the eyes of youth. After these brief comments he was silent until the moment for my going came, when he said :
" I've let you see this afternoon some of our diffi culties. Come with me to-night and I will show you why this country needs diplomacy and tact. There is to be a Cabinet meeting at the White House and we will need a clerk. You shall serve and be silent. You can do both, I believe."
I assented with the greatest willingness to what was an order rather than a request, and closing my desk with the feeling of a schoolboy whose day at his books is over, bade the Secretary good afternoon, and rushed out into the sunshine. The wind was coming from the south-
46 A HERALD OF THE WEST.
west now and was warm. Though it was February there was a suspicion of spring in the air. I thought I could see tender green shoots nestling in the dry grass, and on the trees across yonder I was sure the buds were begin ning to come.
The sun was setting in a cloudless sky, and the big round globe was all red flame. Everything caught the glow and sent it back. The windows of the Capitol blazed with fire. Common wooden houses turned to cas tles and palaces. Bars of light fell across the river, col ouring it red and gold in the sunshine, leaving it* gray and dark blue in the shadow. In the far sky a flock of wild geese flew northward.
It was beautiful to me, who had been shut up in a room since morning, and I walked about in the fresh air, meaning to enjoy it as long as I could before going to the Secretary's house in order to accompany him to the Cabinet meeting. Without laying any such plan in my mind I found myself in five minutes walking before the house of Cyrus Pendleton. Two horses were hitched at the gate, and Marian and Bidwell were passing across the lawn together toward the front door. I had no claims of proprietorship over her, no actual words of love had passed between us, and yet, at the moment, I felt a pang of jealousy. Fortune had made the way so easy for him: the old man, her father, was continually his ally, and the sense of obedience and loyalty was strong in her. All these things might wear away any resolution. But they saw me, and she tossed over the fence to me a little bunch of evergreen that she held in her hand. I pinned it on the lapel of my coat and passed on, thinking for the time but little of wars and the rivalries of nations.
CHAPTER V.
A CABINET SESSION.
MR. GALLATIN was living then in a boarding house, his family being absent in Philadelphia, and he had but two rooms, only one of which was carpeted. It was at these rooms that I ar rived ahead of time, though I had to wait but a few minutes until he put on his cloak and we started toward the White House. His boarding house was on a street so called, but really an unfinished road. At the corner, where another road intersected it, an old oil lamp flared in the wind, but there was no other until we approached the grounds of the White House. The roads were still muddy from the rains, and the Secretary proposed that we strike across the fields, as the white wings of the Capitol shining through the darkness would serve for guidance.
We walked along in comfort through the grass for some distance, and then we encountered a thicket of alder bushes, through which I broke a way with my large body, the Secretary following after. On the other side I was about to plant my foot in a pool of muddy water, but I drew back in time. A dog in the backyard of a negro cabin howled dismally at us, but unheeding him we passed on and came to a rail fence, which we were forced to climb.
" I don't think we made much by our short cut," said the Secretary as he sat panting on the top rail.
" We've kept out of the mud at least," I said, perch ing myself on the rail beside him.
47
48 A HERALD OF THE WEST.
A bell tinkled close by, and a little boy driving some cows home to a late milking passed near us.
" Maybe they've been grazing in the Capitol grounds/' I said. " I'm afraid we're rural and raw, Mr. Gallatin. It's no wonder the Europeans make fun of us, is it? "
" What if they do? " he replied quickly. " The Eu ropean nations have made manners and not morals the standards of right. All things must have beginnings. You can not tame a continent in one year or a hundred. If our capital is not as large and fine as the capitals of Europe, it is becaufe we have just begun it. If our man ners are not those of courts and seem rough and repel lent to the Europeans, our morals are better than theirs. We do not make a joke of woman's virtue; we do not make seduction the chief triumph of a gentleman's life; we call the morganatic marriages of their princes what they are, licensed adultery; we call their diplomacy by its true name, the art of skilful lying; we do not have one set of laws for the strong and another for the weak; we do not teach that work is ignoble; and we give op portunity to all, which is the greatest of all rights. I am an European myself by birth and education, and know the truth of what I say."
We climbed down the fence, feeling carefully for a footing on each rail, lest it might give way with us, and reaching the ground in safety continued our journey toward the President's home.
The White House rose out of the dusk, though the walls showed but dimly through the trees. Only one window was lighted, and the building seemed as quiet as a farmer's house when all have gone to bed. Certainly there was not much fuss or ceremony here. We heard a step on the walk and saw a dusky form in front of us. We hailed the figure, and it proved to be Mr. Eustis, the Secretary of War. Then we walked together into one of the White House porticoes, and seeing nobody there to receive us, knocked loudly at a door. It was opened
A CABINET SESSION. 49
by the President, who carried a lantern in one hand, and apologized on the ground of sickness for the absence of the black boy, James, who usually attended to the door. At that moment another black boy arrived from the kitchen, I suppose and the President gave him the lan tern, telling him to tend the door and hold the lan tern in a good position, in order that it might light the other members of the Cabinet to the proper place.
" It's really needed," he said, " for Mrs. Madison is visiting in Georgetown, and everything about the house has gone awry. Mr. Smith doesn't see too well, and I want him to be sure to find us, for the meeting is very important."
Then he led the way to the Cabinet chamber, and with his own hands gave each of us a glass of excellent Madeira very good and comforting after a walk on a chilly evening.
A long table occupied the centre of the room and around it were cane-bottomed chairs for the members of the Cabinet. I drew up another chair, and made ready with my quills and ink and paper for the notes and mem oranda which I was to make.
The President took his seat at the head of the table, and each man produced papers from his pocket, which he stacked neatly in front of him. It had been a long time since I had seen such a formidable array of docu ments presented to anybody for consideration. Then they began to discuss them. They were of all kinds, complaints from the governors of States that the Federal authority was assuming too much; pleas from the West and Southwest for assistance against the new and hostile leagues of the Indian tribes; more pleas of American sailors impressed by the British, dozens of them; and re por
ts from our agents abroad, indicating the increasing hostility toward us of Great Britain and the Continental nations, and a general belief by them that the United States had no rights which they need respect.
50 A HERALD OF THE WEST.
" We've long ago had proof of that," said Mr. Eustis. " They regard us as interlopers in the world, because we are new and they think they are privileged to plunder us when they choose. They will continue to think that way until we fight some one or more of them."
We heard the wheels of a carriage on the sanded drive outside.
" I suppose that is he," said Mr. Gallatin in a rather grim tone.
I was impressed by the way he said it, and wondered who the " he " was.
" Yes/' said the President, " and he is likely to be more majestic than ever to-night. There is nothing quite so grand as these Frenchmen when they are puffed up with victories and power. He will undoubtedly come, bearing all the glories of Napoleon on his own shoulders. That is why I asked him to address to us this communi cation at a full Cabinet meeting; we do not wish to be overpowered individually.
Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05] Page 5
