CHAPTER XXXVI. THE OCCUPANT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 66 They forbore to break the chain Which bound the dusky tribe, Checked by the owner's fierce disdain, 'Pang for pang your seed shall pay ; R. W. Emerson. N one of the smaller parlors of the White House in Washington sat two men of rather marked appearance. One of them sat leaning back in his tipped chair, with his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest, and his right ancle resting on his left knee. His figure, though now flaccid and relaxed, would evidently be a tall one if pulled out like the sliding joints of a spy-glass; but gaunt, lean, and ungainly, with harsh angles and stooping shoulders. He was dressed in a suit of black, with a black satin vest, and round his neck a black silk kerchief tied carelessly in a knot, and passing under a shirt-collar turned down and revealing a neck brawny, sinewy, and tanned. The face that belonged to this figure was in keeping with it, and yet attractive from a certain charm of expression. Nose prominent and assertive; cheek-bones rather obtrusive, and under them the flesh sallow and browned, though partially covered by thick bristling black whiskers; eyes dark and deeply set; mouth and lips large; and crowning all these features a shock of stiff profuse black hair carelessly put aside from his irregularly developed forehead, as if by no other comb than that which he could make of his long lank fingers. This man was not only the foremost citizen of the Republic, officially considered, but he had a reputation, exaggerated beyond his deserts, for homeliness. By the Rebel press he was frequently spoken of as "the ape" or the "gorilla." From the rowdy George Sanderson to the stiff, if not stately Jefferson Davis (himself far from being an Adonis), the pro-slavery champions took a harmless satisfaction, in their public addresses, in alluding, in some contemptuous epithet, to the man's personal shortcomings. So far from being disturbed, the object of all these revilings would himself sometimes playfully refer to his personal attractions, unconscious how much there was in that face to redeem it from being truly characterized either as ugly or commonplace. As he sat now, with eyes bent on vacancy, and his mind revolving the arguments or facts which had been presented by his visitor, his countenance assumed an expression which was pathetic in its indication of sincere and patient effort to grasp the truth and see clearly the way before him. The expression redeemed the whole countenance, for it was almost tender in its anxious yet resigned thoughtfulness; in its profound sense of the enormous and unparalleled responsibilities resting on that one brain, perplexing it in the extreme. The other party to the interview was a man whose personal appearance was in marked contrast. Although he had numbered in his life nearly as many years as the President, he looked some ten years younger. His figure was strikingly handsome, compact, and graceful; and his clothes were nicely adapted to it, both in color and cut. Every feature of his face was finely outlined and proportioned; and the whole expression indicated at once refinement and energy, habits of intellectual culture and of robust physical exercise and endurance. This man was he who has passed so long in this story under the adopted name of Vance. There had been silence between the two for nearly a minute. Suddenly the President turned his mild dark eyes on his visitor, and said: "Well, sir, what would you have me do? وو "I would have you lead public opinion, Mr. President, instead of waiting for public opinion to lead you.' "Make this allowance for me, Mr. Vance: I have many conflicting interests to reconcile; many conflicting facts and assertions to sift and weigh. Remember I am bound to listen, not merely to the men of New England, but to those of Kentucky, Maryland, and Eastern Tennessee.” "Mr. President, you are bound to listen to no man who is not ready to say, Down with slavery if it stands in the way of the Republic! You should at once infuse into every branch of the public service this determination to tear up the bitter root of all our woes. Why not give me the necessary authority to raise a black regiment?" 66 Impossible! The public are not ripe for any such extreme measure." "There it is! You mean that the public shall be the responsible President instead of Abraham Lincoln. O, sir, knowing you are on the side of right, have faith in your own power to mould and quicken public opinion. When last August in Missouri, Fremont declared the slaves of Rebels free, one word of approval from you would have won the assent of every loyal man. But, instead of believing in the inherent force of a great idea to work its own way, you were biased by the semi-loyal men who were lobbying for slavery, and you countermanded the righteous order, thus throwing us back a whole year. Do I give offence?” "No, sir, speak your mind freely. I love sincerity." "We know very well, Mr. President, that you will do what is right eventually. But O, why not do it at once, and forestall the issue? We know that you will one of these days remove Buell and other generals, the singleness of whose devotion to the Union as against slavery is at least questionable. We know that you will put an end to the atrocious pro-slavery favoritism of many of our officers. We know you will issue a proclamation of emancipation." "I think not, Mr. Vance." "Pardon me, you will do it before next October. You will do it because the pressure of an advanced public opinion will force you to do it, and because God Almighty will interpose checks and defeats to our arms in order that we of the North may, in the fermentation of ideas, throw off this foul scum, redolent of the bottomless pit, which apathy or sympathy in regard to slavery engenders. Yes, you will give us an emancipation proclamation, and then you will give us permission to raise black regiments, and then, after being pricked, and urged, and pricked again, by public opinion, you will offset the Rebel threats of massacre by issuing a war bulletin declaring that the United States will protect her fighting men of whatever color, and that there must be life for life for every black soldier killed in violation of the laws of war." "But are you a prophet, Mr. Vance?” "It requires no gift of prophecy, Mr. President, to foretell these things. It needs but full faith in the operation of Divine laws to anticipate all that I have prefigured. You refuse now to let me raise a black regiment. In less than ten months you will give me a carte blanche to enlist as many negroes as I can for the war." 66 Perhaps, but I don't see my way clear to do it yet.” "A great man," said Vance, "ought to lead and fashion public opinion in stupendous emergencies like this, — ought to throw himself boldly on some great principle having its root in eternal justice, ought to grapple it, cling to it, stake everything upon it, and make everything give way to it." "But I am not a great man, Mr. Vance," said the President, with unaffected naïveté. "I believe your intentions are good and great, Mr. President," was the reply; "for what you supremely desire is, to do your duty." "Yes, I claim that much. Thank you." "Well, your duty is to take the most energetic measures for conquering a peace. Under the Constitution, the war power is committed to your hands. That power is not defined by the Constitution, for it is imprescriptible; regulated by international usage. That usage authorizes you to free the slaves of an enemy. Why not do it?" "Would not a proclamation of emancipation from Abraham Lincoln be much like the Pope's bull against the comet?” "There is this difference: in the latter case, the fulmination is against what we have no reason to suppose is an evil; in the former case, you would attack with moral weapons what you know to be a wrong and an injustice immediately under your eyes and within your reach. If it could be proved that the comet is an evil, the Pope's bull would not seem to me an absurdity; for I have faith in the operation of ideas, and in the triumph of truth and good throughout the universe. But the emancipation proclamation would not be futile; for it would give body and impulse to an idea, and that idea one friendly to right and to progress." The President rose, and, walking to the window, drummed a moment with his fingers abstractedly on the glass, then, returning to his chair, reseated himself and said: "As Chief Magistrate of the Republic, my first duty is to save it. If I can best do that by tolerating slavery, slavery shall be tolerated. If I can best do it by abolishing slavery, you may be sure I will try to abolish it. But I must n't be biased by my feelings or my sentiments." 66 Why not?" asked Vance. "Do not all great moral truths originate in the feelings and the sentiments? The heart's policy is often the safest. Is not cruelty wrong because the heart proclaims it? Is not despotism to be opposed because the heart detests it?" "Mr. Vance, you eager philanthropists little know how hard it often is for less impulsive and more conservative men to withstand the urgency of those feelings that you give way to at once. But you have read history to little purpose if you do not know that the best cause may be jeoparded by the premature and too radical movements of its friends. I have been blamed for listening to the counsels of Kentucky politicians and Missouri conservatives; and yet if we had not held back Kentucky from the secession madness, she might have contributed the straw that would have broken the camel's back." “O Kentucky!" exclaimed Vance, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth! Mr. President, the ruling powers in Kentucky would hand her over bound to Jeff Davis to-morrow, if they dared; but they dare not do it. In the first place, they fear Uncle Sam and his gunboats; in the next place, they fear Kentuckians, of whom, thank God! there are enough who do not believe in slavery; and, lastly, they fear the nineteenth century and the spirit of the age. Better take counsel from the Rhetts and Spratts of South Carolina than from the selfish politicians of Kentucky! They will moor you to the platform of a false conservatism till the golden opportu W |