The Victim: A Romance of the Real Jefferson Davis

by Thomas Dixon

  CHAPTER II

  THE PARTING

  The breathless galleries leaned forward to catch the slightest soundfrom the arena below.

  One by one the Senators from the seceding Southern States rose andrenounced their allegiance to the United States in obedience to thevoice of their people.

  With each solemn exit the women of the galleries grew hysterical, wavedtheir perfumed handkerchiefs and shouted their approval with cries ofsympathy and admiration.

  David Yulee, Stephen K. Mallory and Benjamin Fitzpatrick had each closedhis portfolio and with slow measured tread marched down the crowdedaisle and out of the Chamber never again to enter its doors.

  All eyes were focused now on the brilliant young Senator from Alabama,Clement C. Clay, Jr. It was understood that he had prepared an eloquentdefense of his action and would voice the passionate feeling of themasses of the Southern people in this his last utterance in thecrumbling temple of the old Republic.

  He rose in his place, lifted his strong head with its leonine locks andbroad, high forehead, paused a moment and began his speech in the clearsteady tones of the trained orator, master of himself, his theme and hisaudience. The Northern Senators met his gaze with scorn and he answeredwith a look of bold defiance.

  The formal announcement of the secession of his State he made in briefsharp sentences and plunged at once into the reasons for their solemnact.

  "Forty-two years ago, Alabama was admitted into the Union," he declaredin ringing tones. "She entered it as she goes out, with the Republicconvulsed by the hostility of the North to her domestic institutions.Not a decade has passed, not a year has elapsed since her birth as aState that has not been marked by the steady and insolent growth of themob violence of the North which has demanded the confiscation of herproperty and the destruction of the foundations of her civilization.

  "Who are the leaders of these mobs who seek thus to overthrow theConstitution? Who are these hypocrites who claim the championship offreedom and the moral leadership of the world?

  "The men who sold their own slaves to us because they could not use themwith profit in a northern climate; the men who built and manned everyAmerican slave ship that ever sailed the seas; the sons of old PeterFaneuil of Boston who built Faneuil Hall, their cradle of liberty, outof the profits of slave ships whose trade the Southern people hadforbidden by law; the men who have flooded Congress for two generationswith petitions to dissolve the Union; the men who threatened to secedewith the addition of every foot of territory we have added to ourRepublic!

  "These are the men who have denied to the manhood of the South ChristianCommunion because they could not endure what they have been pleased tostyle the moral leprosy of Slavery! These are the men who refuse uspermission to sojourn or even pass through the sacred precincts of aNorthern State and dare to carry our servants with us. These are the menwho deny to the South equal rights in the lands of the West bought bySouthern blood and brains and added to our inheritance against theirfurious protests. These are the men who burn the sacred charters ofAmerican Liberty in their public squares, and inscribe on their bannersthe foul motto:

  "'The Constitution is an agreement with Death, a covenant with Hell.'

  "These are the men who dare to call us traitors! These are the men whohave deliberately passed laws in fourteen Northern States nullifying theprovisions of the Constitution of the Union which they have sworn todefend and enforce--"

  The speaker paused and lifted high above his head a little morocco boundvolume.

  "Here in the presence of Almighty God--the God of our fathers, and thesewitnesses, I read its solemn provisions which the laws of fourteenNorthern States have brazenly and openly defied!"

  He opened the little book and slowly read:

  "'Article 4, Section 2.

  "'_No person held to service of labor in one State, under the lawsthereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law orregulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor--but shallbe delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor maybe due._'"

  He turned suddenly to the Northern Senators:

  "Your States have not only repudiated the Constitution you have sworn touphold, but your emissaries have invaded the peaceful South and soughtto lay it waste with fire and sword and servile insurrection. You havemurdered Southern men who have dared demand their rights on Northernsoil. You have invaded the borders of Southern States, burned theirdwellings and murdered their people. You have proclaimed John Brown, thecriminal maniac who sought to murder innocent and helpless men, womenand children in Virginia, a hero and martyr and then denounced _us_ inyour popular meetings, your religious and legislative assemblies ashabitual violators of the laws of God and the rights of humanity! Youhave exerted all the moral and physical agencies that human ingenuitycan devise or a devil's malice employ to heap odium and infamy upon usand make the very name of the South a by-word of hissing and of scornthroughout the civilized world--"

  He paused overcome with emotion and lifted his hand to stay the burst ofapplause from the galleries.

  "We have borne all this for long years and might have borne it many moreunder the assurance of our Northern friends that such fanaticism doesnot represent the true heart of the Northern people. But the fallacy ofthese promises and the folly of our hopes have been too clearly provenin the late election. The platform of the political party on which youhave swept every Northern State and elected a sectional President is afoul libel upon our character and a declaration of open war on the livesand property of the Southern people.

  "In defiance of the Constitution which protects our rights your mob hasdecreed the confiscation of three thousand million dollars' worth of ourproperty. If we claim the protection of our common law, your mobsolemnly burns the Constitution in your public squares and denounces itas 'an agreement with Death and covenant with Hell.' We appeal to theSupreme Court of the Republic and when its Judges unanimously sustainour position on every point, your mob cries:

  "'Down with the Supreme Court of the United States!'

  "You have not only insulted us as unchristian and heathen, you haveproclaimed that four million ignorant negroes but yesterday taken fromthe savagery of cannibal Africa are our equals and entitled to share inthe solemn rights of American citizenship. Your declaration is an opensummons that they rise in insurrection with the knife in one hand andthe torch in the other.

  "Your mob has declared the South outlawed, branded with ignominy,consigned to execration and ultimate destruction. Your mob has decreedthe death of Slavery and sends the new President to execute theirdecree.

  "All right--kill Slavery and then what? Kill Slavery and what will youdo with its corpse? Who shall deliver us from the body of this death? Weare not leaving this Hall to fight for the Institution of AfricanSlavery. The grim specter of a degraded and mongrel citizenship whichlies back of your mob's programme of confiscation is the force that isdriving the Southern people out of the Union to find peace and safety.Whatever may be the sins of Slavery in the South they are as nothingwhen compared to the degradation of your life which must follow theirviolent emancipation. The Southern white man is slowly lifting theAfrican out of barbarism into the light of Christian civilization. Inour own good time we will emancipate him and start him on a new lifebeyond the boundaries of our Republic. Whatever may be the differencesof opinion in the South on the institution of slavery--there is nodifference and there has never been on one point--it was trueyesterday--it is true to-day--it will be true to-morrow--_Slavery is theonly modus viviendi by which two such races as the Negro and the Aryancan live side by side in a free democracy with equality the law of itslife_--"

  Again a burst of tumultuous applause swept the gallery.

  "The issue is clear cut and terrible in its simplicity--the South standson the faith of our fathers who created this Republic. The South standsfor Constitutional freedom under the forms of established law. TheNorth has lifted the red flag of revolution and proclaims theirresponsible de
spotism of an enthroned mob!

  "For a generation your school mistresses have been training your boys tohate us and arming them to fight us. Make no mistake about this movementto-day. We who go are but the servants of those who sent us. They nowrecall their ambassadors, and we obey their sovereign will. Make nomistake about it. They are not a brave and rash people, deluded by badmen, who are attempting in an illegal way to wreck the Union. They seekpeace and safety outside driven by the Rebellion against Law and Orderwithin.

  "Are we more or less than men? Can we love our enemies and bless themthat curse and revile us? Are we devoid of the sensibilities, thesentiments, the passions, the reason, and the instincts of mankind? Havewe no pride, no honor, no sense of shame, no reverence for ourancestors, no care for posterity, no love for home, or family orfriends? Must we quail before the onion breath of an enthroned mob,confess our baseness, discredit the fame of our sires, degrade ourchildren, abandon our homes, flee from our country and dishonorourselves--all for the sake of a Union whose Constitution you havepublicly burned and whose Supreme Court you have spit upon?

  "Shall we consent to live under an administration controlled by thosewho not only deny us justice and equality and brand us as infamous, butboldly proclaim their purpose to rob us of our property and destroy ourcivilization?

  "The freemen of Alabama have proclaimed to the world they will not. Intheir sovereign power they have recalled me. As their servant I go!"

  With a wave of his hand in an imperious gesture of defiance to thesilent Senators of the North, amid a scene of unparalleled passion, thespeaker turned to his seat, gathered his books and papers and strodewith quick firm step down the aisle.

  Jennie had leaped to her feet and stood clapping her hands in a frenzyof excitement, unconscious of the existence of the strangely quiet youngman by her side.

  He rose and stood smiling into her flushed face as she gasped:

  "A wonderful speech--wasn't it?"

  "They say the South has never lacked audacity, Miss Barton. I'mwondering if they are really going to make good such words with deeds."

  He spoke with a cold detachment that chilled and angered the impulsivegirl. A hot answer was on her lips when she remembered suddenly that hewas a foreigner.

  "Of course, Signor, you can not understand our feelings!"

  "On the other hand, I assure you, I do--I'm just wondering in a coldintellectual way whether the oratorical temperament--the temperament ofpassion, of righteous wrath of the explosive type which we have justwitnessed, will win in the trial by fire which war will bring--"

  "You doubt our courage?" she interrupted, with a slight curve of theproud little lips.

  "Far from it--I assure you! I'm only wondering if it has the sullen,dogged, staying qualities these stolid Northern men down there haveexhibited while they listened--"

  The girl threw him a quick surprised look and he stopped. His voice hadunconsciously taken the tones of a soliloquy.

  "I beg your pardon, Miss Barton," he said, with sudden swing to thepolite tones of society. "I'm annoying you with my foreignspeculations--"

  A sudden murmur swept the galleries and all eyes were turned on the tallslender figure of Jefferson Davis as he slowly entered the SenateChamber.

  "Who is it?" Socola asked.

  "Senator Davis--you don't know him?"

  "I have never seen him before. He has been quite ill I hear."

  "Yes. He's been in bed for the past week suffering agonies fromneuralgia. He lost the sight of one of his eyes from chronic pain causedby exposure in the service of his country in the northwest."

  "Really--I didn't know that."

  "He was compelled to remain in a darkened room for months the past yearto save the sight of his remaining eye."

  "That accounts for my not having seen him before."

  Socola followed the straight military figure with painful interest as heslowly moved toward his seat greeting with evident weakness hiscolleagues as he passed. He was astonished beyond measure at thepersonality of the famous leader of the "Southern Conspirators" of whomhe had heard so much. He was the last man in all the crowd he would havesingled out for such a role. The face was too refined, too spiritual,too purely intellectual for the man of revolution. His high forehead,straight nose, thin compressed lips and pointed chin belonged to thepoet and dreamer rather than the man of action. The hollow cheek bonesand deeply furrowed mouth told of suffering so acute the sympathy ofevery observer was instantly won.

  In spite of evident suffering his carriage was erect, dignified, andgraceful. The one trait which fastened the attention from the first andheld it was the remarkable intensity of expression which clothed histhin muscular face.

  "You like him?" Jennie ventured at last.

  "I can't say, Miss Barton," was the slowly measured answer. "He is aremarkably interesting man. I'm surprised and puzzled--"

  "Surprised and puzzled at what?"

  "Well, you see I know his history. The diplomatist makes it his businessto know the facts in the lives of the leaders of a nation to whoseGovernment he is accredited. Mr. Davis spent four years at West Point.He gave seven years of his life to the service of the army in the West.He carried your flag to victory in Mexico and hobbled home on crutches.He was one of your greatest Secretaries of War. He sent George B.McClellan and Robert E. Lee to the Crimea to master European warfare,organized and developed your army, changed the model of your arms,introduced the rifled musket and the minie ball. He explored yourWestern Empire and surveyed the lines of the great continental railwaysyou are going to build to the Pacific Ocean. He planned and built yoursystem of waterworks in the city of Washington and superintends now theextension of the Capitol building which will make it the most imposingpublic structure in the world. He has never stooped to play the part ofa demagogue. He has never sought an office higher than the role ofSenator which fits his character and temperament. His mind has alwaysbeen busy dreaming of the imperial future of your widening Republic. Hiseye has seen the vision of its extension to the Arctic on the north andthe jungles of Panama on the south. Why should such a man deliberatelycome into this chamber to-day before this assembled crowd and commithari-kari?"

  "He's a true son of the South!" Jennie Barton proudly answered.

  "Even so, how can he do the astounding thing he proposes to carry outto-day? His record shows that passionate devotion to the Union has beenthe very breath of his life. I've memorized one of his outbursts as amodel of your English language--"

  Jennie laughed.

  "I never heard of his Union speeches, I'm sure!"

  "Strange that your people have forgotten them. Listen: 'From sire to sonhas descended the love of the Union in our hearts, as in our history aremingled the names of Concord and Camden, of Yorktown and Saratoga, ofNew Orleans and Bunker Hill. Together they form a monument to the commonglory of our common country. Where is the Southern man who would wishthat monument less by one Northern name that constitutes the mass? Who,standing on the ground made sacred by the blood of Warren, could allowsectional feeling to curb his enthusiasm as he looks upon that obeliskwhich rises a monument to freedom's and his country's triumph, andstands a type of the time, the men and the event it commemorates; builtof material that mocks the waves of time, without niche or molding forparasite or creeping thing to rest upon, pointing like a finger to thesky to raise man's thoughts to high and noble deeds!'"

  Socola paused and turned his dark eyes on Jennie's upturned face.

  "How can the man who made that speech in Boston do this mad deedto-day?"

  "Senator Clay has given the answer," was the girl's quick reply.

  "For Senator Clay, yes--the fiery, impulsive, passionate child ofemotion. But this thin hollow-cheeked student, thinker and philosopher,who spoke the thrilling words I quote--he should belong to the order ofthe Prophet and the Seer--the greatest leaders and teachers of history."

  "We believe he does, Signor!" was the quick answer. "Look--he's goingto speak--you'll hear him now."
>
  Jennie leaned forward, her thoughtful little chin in both hands, as asilence so intense it was pain fell suddenly on the hushed assembly.

  The face of the Southern leader was chalk white in its pallor. His firstsentences were weak and scarcely reached beyond the circle of hisimmediate hearers. His physician had forbidden him to leave his room.The iron will had risen to perform a solemn duty. The Senators leanedforward in their arm-chairs fearful of losing a word.

  He paused as if for breath and gazed a moment on the upturned faces withthe look of lingering tenderness which the dying cast on those upon whomthey gaze for the last time.

  His figure suddenly rose to its full height, as if the soul within hadthrust the feeble body aside to speak its message. His words, full,clear and musical rang to the furthest listener craning his neck throughthe jammed doorways of the galleries. Never was the music of the humanvoice more profoundly appealing. Unshed tears were in its throbbingtones.

  There was no straining for effect--no outburst of emotion. Theimpression which reached the audience was the sense of restraint and theconsciousness of his unlimited reserve power. Back of the simpleclean-cut words which fell in musical cadence from his white lips wasthe certainty that he was only speaking a small part of what he felt,saw and knew. He neither stormed nor raved and yet he filled the heartsof his hearers with unspeakable passion.

  He turned suddenly and bent his piercing single eye on the NorthernSenators:

  "I hope none who hear me will confound my position with the advocacy ofthe right of a State to remain in the Union and disregard itsConstitutional obligations by the nullification of the law--"

  A sudden cheer swept the tense galleries. The sergeant-at-arms calledfor order. The cheer rose again. The Vice-President rapped for silenceand threatened to close the galleries. The speaker lifted his hand andcommanded silence.

  "It was because of his deep attachment to the Union--his determinationto find some remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the tieswhich bound South Carolina to the other States--that John C. Calhounadvocated the doctrine of nullification which he proclaimed to bepeaceful and within the limits of State power.

  "Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to bejustified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There was a timewhen none denied it. The phrase 'to execute the laws' General Jacksonapplied to a State refusing to obey the law while yet a member of theUnion. You may make war on a foreign state. If it be the purpose ofgentlemen--"

  He paused and again his eagle eye swept the tiers of Northern Senators.

  "You may make war against a State which has withdrawn from the Union;but there are no laws of the United States to be executed within thelimits of a seceded State--"

  Seward leaned forward in his seat and shook his head in grave dissent.The speaker bent his gaze directly upon his great antagonist and spokewith strange regretful tenderness.

  "A State finding herself in a condition in which Mississippi has judgedshe is--in which her safety requires that she should provide for themaintenance of her rights out of the Union--surrenders all the benefits(and they are known to be many), deprives herself of all the advantages(and they are known to be great), severs all the ties of affections (andthey are close and enduring) which have bound her to the Union; and thusdivesting herself of every benefit--taking upon herself everyburden--she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws ofthe United States within her limits.

  "When Massachusetts was arraigned before the bar of the Senate for herrefusal to permit the execution of the laws of the United States withinher borders, my opinion was the same then as now. Her State issovereign. She never delegated to the Federal Government the power todrive her by force. And when she chooses to take the last step whichseparates her from the Union, it is her right to go!--"

  Another electric wave swept the crowd that burst into applause. Thespeaker lifted his long arm with an impatient gesture.

  "And I would not vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her back intounwilling submission. I would say to her--'God speed in the memory ofthe kind associations which once existed between her and her sisterStates.'

  "It has been a conviction of pressing necessity--a belief that we are tobe deprived in the Union of the rights which our fathers bequeathedus--which has brought Mississippi to her present decision.

  "You have invoked the sacred Declaration of Independence as the basis ofan attack upon her social order. The Declaration of Independence is tobe construed by the circumstances and purposes for which it was made. Itwas written by a Southern planter and slave owner. The Colonies weredeclaring their independence from foreign tyranny--were asserting in thelanguage of Jefferson, 'that no man was born booted and spurred to rideover the rest of mankind; that men were created equal'--meaning the menof their American political community; that there was no divine right torule; that no man could inherit the right to govern; that there were noclasses by which power and place descended from father to son; but thatall stations were equally within the grasp of each member of the bodypolitic. These were the principles they announced.

  "They had no reference to a slave. The same document denounced GeorgeIII for the crime of attempting to stir their slaves to insurrection, asJohn Brown attempted at Harper's Ferry. If their Declaration ofIndependence announced that negroes were free and the equals of Englishcitizens how could the Prince be arraigned for daring to raise servileinsurrection among them? And how should this be named among the highcrimes of George III which caused the Colonies to sever their connectionwith the Mother country?

  "If slaves were declared our equals how did it happen that in theorganic law of the Union they were given a lower caste and theirpopulation allowed (and that only through the dominant race) a basis ofthree-fifths representation in Congress? So stands the compact of Unionwhich binds us together.

  "We stand upon the principles on which our Government was founded!--"

  The sentence rang clear and thrilling as the peal of a trumpet. Theeffect was electric. The galleries leaped to their feet, and cheered.

  Jennie turned to the silent diplomat.

  "Isn't he glorious!"

  "He stirs the hearts of men"--was the even answer.

  Around them were unmistakable evidences. Women were weeping hystericallyand men embracing one another in silence and tears.

  Again the Senator's hand was lifted high in command for silence andagain he faced Seward and his Northern colleagues with figure tense,erect.

  "When you repudiate these principles, and when you deny to us the rightto withdraw from a Government which, thus perverted, threatens todestroy our rights, we but tread the path of our fathers when weproclaim our independence and take the hazard!"

  Again a cheer and shout which the Vice-President's gavel could notquell. When the murmur at last died away the speaker's voice had droppedto low appealing tenderness.

  "We do this, Senators, not in hostility to others, not to injure anysection of our common country, not for our own pecuniary benefit, butfrom the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the rightswe inherited, which we will transmit unshorn to our children. We seekoutside the Union that peace, with dignity and honor, which we can nolonger find within.

  "I trust I find myself a type of the general feeling of my constituentstowards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility toward you, Senators fromthe North--"

  He paused and swept the Northern tiers with a look of tender appeal.

  "I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there mayhave been between us, to whom I can not now say in the presence of myGod, I wish you well!"

  Seward turned his head from the speaker, his eyes dimmed--the schemingdiplomat and unscrupulous politician lost in the heart of the man forthe moment.

  "Such I am sure is the feeling of the people whom I represent towardthose whom you represent. I but express their desire when I say I hopeand they hope for peaceful relations with you, though we must part--"

  He paused
as if to suppress emotions too deep for words while a silence,intense and suffocating, held the crowd in a spell. The speaker's voicedropped to still lower and softer notes of persuasive tenderness as eachrounded word of the next sentence fell slowly from the thin lips.

  "If war must come, we can only invoke the God of our fathers, whodelivered us from the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravagesof the bear, and putting our trust in Him and in our firm hearts andstrong arms we will vindicate the right as best we may--"

  No cheer greeted this solemn utterance. In the pause which followed, thespeaker deliberately gazed over the familiar faces of his Northernopponents and continued with a suppressed intensity of feeling thatgripped his bitterest foe.

  "In the course of my service here, associated at different times with agreat variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I haveserved long. There have been points of collision, but, whatever offensethere has been to me, I leave here. I carry with me no hostileremembrance. For whatever offense I may have given which has not beenredressed, or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have,Senators, in this solemn hour of our parting to offer you my apology--"

  The low musical voice died softly away in the silence of tears.

  A woman sobbed aloud.

  Socola bent toward his trembling companion and whispered:

  "Who is she?"

  Jennie brushed the tears from her brown eyes before replying:

  "The Senator's wife. She's heart-broken over it all--didn't sleep awink all night. I've been looking for her to faint every minute."

  The leader closed his portfolio. His hollow cheeks, thin lips and whitedrawn face were clothed with an expression of sorrow beyond words as heslowly turned and left the scene of his life's triumphs.

  The spell of his eloquence at last thrown off the crowd once moredissolved into hostile lowering groups.

  Stern old Zack Chandler of Michigan collided with Jennie's father in thecloak room, his eyes red with wrath.

  "Well, Barton," he growled, "after the damned insolence of that scene ifthe North don't fight, I'll be much mistaken--"

  "You generally are, sir," Barton retorted.

  "If they don't fight, by the living God, I'll leave this country andjoin another nation--the Comanche Indians preferred to this Government."

  Barton glanced at his opponent and his heavy jaw closed with a snap.

  "I trust, Senator," he said with deliberate venom, "you will not carryout that resolution--the Comanche Indians have already suffered too muchfrom contact with the whites!"

  Dick Welford heard the shot and gripped the fierce old Southerner's handas Chandler turned on his heel and disappeared with an oath.

  "You got him that time, Senator!"

  Barton laughed with boyish glee.

  "I did, didn't I? Sometimes we can only think of our best things whenit's too late. But by Gimminy I got the old rascal this time, didn't I?"

  "You certainly plugged him--what did you think of the speeches?"

  "Clay said something! Davis is too slow. He's got no blood in hisveins. I don't like him. He'll pull us back into the Union yet if wedon't watch him. He's a reconstructionist at heart. The State ofMississippi is dragging him out of Washington by the heels. He makes metired. The time for talk has passed. To your tents now, O Israel!"

  Dick hurried to the gallery and watched Socola talking in his gracefulItalian way with Jennie. He had hated this elegant foreigner the momenthe had laid eyes on him. He made up his mind to declare himself beforeanother sun set.

  He ignored the Italian's existence.

  "You are ready, Miss Jennie?"

  She took Dick's proffered arm in silence and bowed to Socola who watchedthem go with a peculiar smile playing about his handsome mouth.

  Jennie insisted on stopping at Senator Davis' home to tell his wife ofthe wonderful power with which his speech had swept the galleries.

  The house was still, the library door open. The girl paused on thethreshold in awe. The Senator's tall figure was lying prostrate acrosshis desk, his thin hands clasped in prayer, his face buried in his arms.His lips were murmuring words too low to be heard until at last theyswelled in sorrowful repetition:

  "May God have us in his holy keeping and grant that before it is toolate peaceful councils may prevail!"

  The girl turned softly and left without a word.