American Dreams Trilogy

by Michael Phillips

  “Yes… hello, Abraham.”

  “Beaumont,” said Seehorn, setting his cigar down long enough to shake hands.

  They all took seats. Trowbridge ordered a new round of drinks, Seehorn offered Beaumont a cigar. In a few moments the three were chatting amiably.

  “We want to talk to you about your future,” said Trowbridge at length. “We have had our differences in the past, but that is behind us. We believe that Virginia’s future lies with men like you.”

  Beaumont nodded guardedly. The words were welcome, of course, but he was reluctant to commit himself until he heard more.

  “There is no sense beating around the bush,” Trowbridge continued, “so I will put our cards right out on the table. Senator Everett’s health is not the best. Nor is he entirely in step with many in the party. When his term is up, he will not run for reelection. Abraham and I, and with our backing all the party leaders will support it, intend to make you our candidate. There will be no nonsense such as what Hoyt used against you. You should win easily.”

  Beaumont took in the words, heart beginning to pound a little more rapidly but still trying to maintain an outward calm.

  “I am flattered and honored,” he said. “And I appreciate the confidence you show in me. But 1862 is three years away. Much can happen in that time. It strikes me as a little early for any of us to be making too many predictions about any supposed victory at that time.”

  “Of course, you are right,” nodded Trowbridge. “But as I said, Senator Everett—”

  “The man’s in his dotage,” interrupted Seehorn, punctuating his words with a cloud of smoke from his cigar. “And with Hoyt espousing moderation in the matter of the Negroes, Virginia has lost its Southern voice in Washington.”

  “Abraham is right,” said Trowbridge. “The situation is dire. Many of us are not at all pleased. Though Everett is the older of Virginia’s two senators, he has become almost a lackey for Hoyt by his silence. But it is clear that Hoyt does not speak for our interests.”

  “But what can I do about it?” said Beaumont. “What can any of us do?”

  “The point is,” Trowbridge went on, “we do not want to wait three years.”

  Beaumont took in the words with confused expression.

  “I… am uncertain what you mean,” he said.

  “You are correct in saying that the election is three years away,” continued Trowbridge. “But we believe there are ways in which your influence can be felt immediately.”

  “What ways?”

  “We want you to go to Washington now, as soon as is convenient, perhaps in the fall. We need a man we can trust. We will arrange for some post or appointment to give cover for your activities between now and the election.”

  “What would be the purpose of my going now and holding such a post?”

  “What we chiefly want is simply for you to be there, to meet your future congressional colleagues, to mix with important people, to make speeches… in short, to be a voice for Virginia. We want to increase your visibility and stature, so that when the time of the election comes, you are already on your way to becoming a national figure and leading Southern spokesman.”

  At last they had succeeded in getting Denton Beaumont’s attention! Now all he had to do was to keep from gushing all over himself with pleasure over the proposal. With great effort he swallowed the smile that tried to break out on his face.

  “You would, I take it, not be adverse to such an arrangement?” suggested Seehorn.

  “No, of course not… I mean, anything I can do for the party, and Virginia,” replied Beaumont. “I mean… we must all make sacrifices, and I would be more than willing—”

  “I thought so.” Seehorn’s lips smiled around his cigar.

  “As Abraham has said, Senator Everett is losing his grip,” said Trowbridge. “As soon as you are situated in Washington, we would also like you to begin working closely with him, both in preparation for your taking over his seat later, but also acting in a sense as an invisible stand-in for him. We want his policies to begin to reflect your views as soon as possible.”

  “Will he go along with that?”

  “He will be only too glad for the help,” answered Seehorn. “I have already spoken with him about it. He is willing to give you a free rein.”

  “What about your family?” asked Trowbridge. “Would there be any difficulties there?”

  “No… none whatsoever,” replied Beaumont. “My wife and daughter will be only too pleased to relocate to Washington. They were more disappointed than I was with the election!” he added with a light laugh. “Although my daughter is scheduled to be married late in the year—to Davidson’s buffoon of a son, believe it or not!—so we will have to work around that. It may not be possible for them to join me in the capital immediately.”

  “But you see no hindrance to your being able to take up certain responsibilities within a few months, looking for a house in the capital, being seen socially, that sort of thing?”

  “No… no hindrance whatever.”

  “Your plantation can get by without you?”

  “I have enough men to keep the darkies in line.”

  “Good. Then we will get to work on our end as well in hopes that by midfall or the end of the year at the latest, you will be situated and on your way to becoming a recognized and respected figure in Washington.”

  Fifty-four

  Hearing that their neighbor was away, and desirous of using that fact to whatever advantage it might provide them, Carolyn and Seth, with their four charges, left Greenwood in the small hours of a morning when a full moon would allow them to travel and make a good distance before daybreak. Hopefully they would be many miles from the vicinity of Dove’s Landing before they were seen. By then no one would know them.

  They set out with Seth at the reins, Carolyn lying on the mattress in back, and, at least until they should be well away from Dove’s Landing and any prying eyes, Lucindy, Calebia, Broan, and Rebecca, as comfortable as they could be made with blankets, in the hidden compartment below her.

  Progress was slow. Seth did not want to push the pace too early. Diamond and Coronet had to carry them a hundred and forty miles and he must gauge their endurance carefully. By daybreak the group was well away from the region where they would be recognized. Seth pulled off the road onto a grassy flat beside a stream and reined in.

  “I think it is time for a stop, some exercise, and whatever else anyone needs to do!” he said.

  Behind him, Carolyn roused herself and sat up. “What time is it?” she said.

  “I don’t know, six… six-thirty,” replied Seth. “You get any sleep, Mother?”

  “A few good hours. You know me, I can sleep anywhere! I’ll be able to take over for you.”

  The pounding of the floor below her and Broan’s muffled voice reminded her that they were not alone.

  “Just a minute,” she laughed. “I’ll have you out of there in half a minute.”

  She got up, rolled the mattress back and lifted the loose plank beneath it that served as the door for their hideaways. Light flooded the hidden chamber and two little bodies came scampering out, jumped to the ground, and scurried about. As soon as Calebia was lifted to the ground, she tried to run after her older brother and sister.

  “Don’t go far, children!” Carolyn called after them. “Remember what we talked about—if anyone comes you must get back into the wagon quickly.”

  Lucindy’s head followed from beneath. With a little more difficulty, and Carolyn’s assistance, she worked her way up and out.

  “You poor dear,” said Carolyn, “you must be so cramped down there!”

  “It ain’t so bad, Missus Dab’son,” said Lucindy, “speshully at night. We wuz asleep so di’nt hardly know no dif’ernce, ’cept w’en I’d wake up an’ start up an’ bump my head. But I’ll lay anywheres ter keep from goin’ back, so it don’t bother me none, Missus Dab’son.”

  Seth was just coming back from a clump of tree
s as the two women climbed down.

  “There’s a nice stream there,” he said. “You can wash and drink, and I’m going to water the horses and give them something to eat. Maybe we should eat our breakfast here too. It seems safe enough. There are no towns or farms or houses anywhere nearby that I can see.”

  They were on their way again in an hour, Seth taking a turn on the mattress and trying to sleep, though without a great deal of success. His mind was too full of the dangers, and the commotion, wriggling, questions, and ceaseless chatter from beneath him didn’t help. Lucindy may have been able to lie comfortably in a sixteen-inch dark compartment, but such did not lie within the range of human possibility for three energetic little youngsters. Eventually they drifted off to sleep again, and slowly Seth dozed off. When he awoke the sun was high in the sky, his mother still sat on the seat in front, and otherwise little had changed.

  He rolled back the mattress and lifted the board.

  “I’m going up front for a little while,” he said. “How would you like some light and fresh air down there?”

  “I gots ter do sum necessaries, Massa Seff,” said Broan with urgency in his voice.

  Seth laughed. “A stop would probably do us all good,” he said. “I could use one myself, and I’m sure your ma would like to get out of there and stretch her legs.”

  Carolyn pulled to the side of the road and stopped, then climbed down and stretched.

  “How you doing, Mother?” asked Seth.

  “I’m getting tired. But we’ll make it. How far do you think we’ve come?”

  “I don’t know… thirty or forty miles. We’ve been keeping a decent clip—which reminds me,” he added, walking around to the back of the wagon where they kept the water barrel and buckets, “we need to feed and water these horses as often as we can.”

  Carolyn opened the food basket and set out a few things, and within ten minutes the travelers were on their way again. Seth and his mother sat on the front bench, Lucindy and her children sprawled on the mattress in back, munching on bread and cheese, in bright spirits once again to feel the sun and breeze on their faces. Seth and Carolyn chatted away and another hour passed without incident.

  Suddenly Seth stopped in midsentence and scanned the road ahead.

  “I think I hear someone coming,” he said. “Back underneath!” he called behind him, handing the reins to his mother, then turning around. “Hurry—and not a sound.”

  They had practiced this several times, so the children knew instantly what to do. Broan and Rebecca scrambled through the opening, with Lucindy stuffing Calebia through and then wriggling in beside them with slightly more difficulty. The moment she was inside, Seth clamped the board in its place, folded back the mattress, and lay down. They hoped that the sling in which his arm was still bound would justify the presence of the mattress.

  Almost the same instant, a buggy came around the bend in the road in front of them. Both continued on, and passed. Carolyn gave a nod and a smile but did not slow down, the man tipped his hat as they passed, and that was that. At least it gave some comfort to know that their appearance did not attract immediate and obvious attention.

  They passed through several towns throughout the course of the day, always adopting the same plan—with Carolyn at the reins in front, Seth on the mattress behind, and with stern admonishments to silence below.

  By late afternoon, fatigue was noticeably setting in with drooping eyes and nodding heads, even occasionally on the parts of the drivers. They continued on, however, knowing that they would have to stop eventually to give the horses a rest and wanting to make it as far as they could before then. Seth judged that by now they were within twenty miles or so of the Maryland border. From Spotsylvania, they had come through Stafford, Prince William, and finally Loudoun Counties. Only another thirty miles through the panhandle of the northernmost slave state east of the Monocacy River and they would reach the Mason-Dixon Line and Pennsylvania border south of Hanover. They were now in hillier terrain. They hoped it would not slow their progress.

  “Riders!” said Seth suddenly. “Lots of them—Mom… Mom, wake up!”

  Behind him Carolyn struggled to rouse herself to wakefulness. “Get up here, Mom!” Seth called back to her. “You’ve got to take over.”

  Still half asleep, Carolyn sat up and crawled forward. Seth slowed the horses, set the reins on the bench and hurried back to her place. He was under the blanket and Carolyn had just managed to grab hold of the reins when the dust and thunder of a half dozen horsemen came into sight ahead of them. Their leader reined in. It was obvious from the way his men surrounded the wagon that he expected her to do the same.

  “Howdy, ma’am,” he said with a nod and tip of his hat. “The name’s Murdoch—where you headed?”

  “North,” said Carolyn.

  “How far north?”

  “Not far.”

  While they spoke, one of the riders made his way around the wagon, looking it over slowly.

  “What’s with him?” he said, nodding to Seth where he lay in the back.

  Below him in darkness, Lucindy lay trembling in terror. The moment he spoke she had recognized the man’s voice.

  “That’s my son,” said Carolyn. “His arm’s broke.”

  “Yeah, I can see that. Why’s he laying on a mattress?”

  “He got two cracked ribs, too. They sometimes pain him. It’s more comfortable for him lying down, ain’t it, Son?”

  “Yeah, Ma,” said Seth, looking back at the man who was staring at him.

  “What happened to you, boy?” asked the man.

  “He got into a fight with a black fellow about twice his size,” said Carolyn, glancing back at the man.

  “A slave?”

  “No, a free colored.”

  “They’re the worst,” said the man.

  “What about?” asked the other man.

  “It was over a girl,” said Seth.

  The man smiled. “What color girl?” he said.

  “A white girl. He was bothering her and I didn’t think he oughta be.”

  “Well, you sound all right to me, kid. Listen, ma’am, you ain’t seen any niggers on the road back there, have you, traveling alone?”

  “Traveling alone, you say?”

  The man nodded.

  “No sir, sure haven’t… have you seen any coloreds, Seth… traveling alone?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, there’s runaways about, ma’am. Get a lot of them this close to the border. We’re after a couple families right now said to be headed for Pennsylvania. You sure you ain’t seen nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary?”

  Carolyn shook her head.

  “All right, then—best to you, ma’am. And you keep them niggers in their place, boy!”

  Just as quickly as they had appeared, the riders galloped off and were gone.

  Wide awake now, Carolyn breathed a sigh of relief and glanced back at Seth.

  “Did you see how he was looking over the wagon!” she said. “I was sure he was going to start poking around and looking under everything.”

  “All the more reason for us to keep moving as fast as we can,” said Seth. “That man was a bounty hunter, I’m sure of it.”

  “A bounty hunter!”

  “There are more and more of them, Mother, with runaways on the increase. We’re going to have to be really careful. I’ve heard they can be ruthless. Keep the horses moving along if you can, even though they’re starting to tire. We’ll look for a place where there’s water and where we can get off the road just before it gets dark.”

  “He wuz a bounty hunter, ’deed he wuz, missus Dab’son,” added Lucindy in a frightened voice from below. “I’s neber fergit dat voice.”

  As soon as they had the chance, Seth sat to one side and Lucindy’s head popped up and, still frightened, she told them about the incident she had witnessed with Murdoch before. Her story sobered them all the more to the extreme danger of what they were doing, and what wo
uld likely be the consequences if they were caught.

  About four hours later, as Seth had suggested, they pulled well off and out of sight of the road near a small stream, unhitched the horses, and made preparations to sleep for several hours and let the horses eat, drink, and rest. Even though several hours had passed since they had seen the riders, they knew it would be imprudent for everyone to go to sleep outside in the open. Seth said he would stay awake and keep watch. Carolyn and Lucindy arranged themselves and the children as comfortably as they could, huddled together with mattress and blankets, with the board to the hidden chamber open so that the latter four could quickly hide should the need arise.

  They were all so exhausted, after a quick cold supper and drink of water, that the five were asleep within minutes, leaving Seth to himself.

  The next thing Carolyn knew, Seth was jostling her awake.

  “Time to be going, Mother,” he said. “I’ve got the horses hitched back up, the moon’s up. If you want to stay like you are, I think it’ll be fine in the middle of the night like this. Just be ready to get them below if we run into anyone.”

  “Do you want me to take the reins a while, Seth?”

  “That’s all right. I dozed off a little too. I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t help it. So I’m okay for a while—get some more sleep if you can.”

  Carolyn pulled the blanket back up around her shoulders, glanced around at Lucindy, Broan, Rebecca, and Calebia sleeping contentedly against boxes and crates and half the mattress, smiled to herself, then closed her eyes again. Seth called out to the horses, and they bounded into motion.

  Encountering only a handful of riders and wagons and buggies after the gray light of dawn began to steal over the hilly Maryland landscape, they reached the Pennsylvania border—Carolyn again at the reins, Lucindy and her three hidden once more out of sight below.

  For the sake of prudence, Carolyn kept Lucindy and the children where they were. They knew nothing about how safe runaway slaves actually were merely because they crossed the border. Carolyn judged it best to tell them nothing of the border sign she had seen while they slept. No harm could come from exercising added precaution all the way to their destination.