CHAPTER XV
MR. JEFFERSON'S ADVICE
"Merne, my boy," said Thomas Jefferson, when at length they two werealone once more in the little office, "I cannot say what your returnmeans to me. You come as one from the grave--you resurrect anotherfrom the grave."
"Meaning, Mr. Jefferson?----"
"You surely have heard that my administration is in sad disrepute?There is no man in the country hated so bitterly as myself. We arestruggling on the very verge of war."
"I heard some talk in the West, Mr. Jefferson," hesitated MeriwetherLewis.
"Yes, they called this Louisiana Purchase, on which I had set myheart, nothing but extravagance. The machinations of Colonel Burr haveadded nothing to its reputation. General Jackson is with Burr, andmany other strong friends. And meantime you know where Burr himselfis--in the Richmond jail. I understand that his friend, Mr. Merry, hasgone yonder to visit him. Our country is degenerated to be no morethan a scheming-ground, a plotting-place, for other powers. You comeback just in the nick of time. You have saved this administration!You bring back success with you. If the issue of your expedition wereanything else, I scarce know what would be my own case here. Formyself, that would have mattered little; but as to this country forwhich I have planned so much, your failure would have cost us all theMississippi Valley, besides all the valley of the Missouri and theColumbia. Yes, had you not succeeded, Aaron Burr would have succeeded!Instead of a great republic reaching from ocean to ocean, we shouldhave had a scattered coterie of States of no endurance, no continuity,no power. Thank God for the presence of one great, splendid thinggloriously done! You cannot, do not, begin to measure its importance."
"We are glad that you have been pleased, Mr. Jefferson," said Lewissimply.
"Pleased! Pleased! Say rather that I am saved! Say rather that thiscountry is saved! Had you proved disloyal to me--had you for any causeturned back," he went on, "think what had been the result! What aload, although you knew it not, was placed on your shoulders! Supposethat you had turned back on the trail last year, or the summerbefore--suppose you had not gotten beyond the Mandans--can you measurethe difference for this republic? Can you begin to see whatresponsibility rested on you? Had you failed, you would have draggedthe flag of your country in the dust. Had you come back any timebefore you did, then you might have called yourself the man who ruinedhis President, his friend, his country!"
"And I nearly did, Mr. Jefferson!" broke out Meriwether Lewis. "Donot praise me too much. I was tempted----"
The old man turned toward him, his face grave.
"You are honest! I value that above all in you--you are punctilious tohave no praise not honestly won. Listen, now!" He leaned toward theyoung man, who sat beside him. "I know--I knew all along--how you weretempted. She came here--Theodosia--the very day you left!"
Lewis nodded, mute.
"In some way, I knew, the conspirators fought against your success andmine. I knew what agencies they intended to use against you--it wasthis woman! Had you failed, I should have known why. I know manythings, whether or not you do. I know the character of Aaron Burr wellenough. He has been crazed, carried away by his own ambitions--Godalone knows where he would have stopped. He has been a man notsurpassed in duplicity. He would stop at nothing. Moreover, he couldmake black look white. He did so for his daughter. She believed in himabsolutely. And knowing somewhat of his plans, I imagined that hewould use the attraction of that young lady for you--the power which,all things considered, she might be supposed to possess with you. Iknew the depth of your regard for her, the deeper for itshopelessness. And more than all, I knew the intentness and resolutionof your character. It was one motive against the other! Which was thestronger? You were a young man--the hot blood of youth was yours, andI know its power. Had the woman not been married, I should have lost!You would have sold a crown for her. It was honor saved you--yourpersonal honor--that was what brought us success. No country is biggerthan the personal honor of its gentlemen."
The bowed head of Meriwether Lewis was his only answer. The keen-facedold man went on:
"I knew that before you had left the mouth of the Ohio River he woulddo his best to stop you--I knew it before you had left Harper's Ferry;but I placed the issue in the lap of the gods. I applied to you allthe tests--the severest tests--that one man can to another. I let youalone! For a year, two years, three years, I did not know. But now Ido know; and the answer is yonder flag which you have carried from oneocean to the other. The answer is in this map, all these hidesscrawled in coal--all those new thousands of miles of land--_our_land. God keep it safe for us always! And may the people one day knowwho really secured it for them! It was not so much Thomas Jefferson asit was Meriwether Lewis.
"Each time I dreamed that my subtle enemies were tempting you, Iprayed in my own soul that you would be strong; that you would go on;that you would be loyal to your duty, no matter what the cost. Godanswered those prayers, my boy! Whatever was your need, whatever priceyou paid, you did what I prayed you would do. When the months passedand you did not come back, I knew that not even the woman you lovedcould have called you back. I knew that you had learned the pricelesslesson of renunciation, of sacrifice, through which alone the greatdeeds of the world always have been done."
Meriwether Lewis stood before his chief, cold and pale, unable tocomplete much speech. Thomas Jefferson looked at him for a momentbefore he went on.
"My boy, you are so simple that you will not understand. You do notunderstand how well I understand you! These things are not donewithout cost. If there was punishment for you, you took thatpunishment--or you will! You kept your oath as an officer and yourunwritten oath as a gentleman. It is a great thing for a man to havehis honor altogether unsullied."
"Mr. Jefferson!" The young man before him lifted a hand. His face wasghastly pale. "Do not," said he. "Do not, I beg of you!"
"What is it, Merne?" exclaimed the old man. "What have I done?"
"You speak of my honor. Do not! Indeed, you touch me deep."
Thomas Jefferson, wise old man, raised a hand.
"I shall never listen, my son," said he. "I will accord to you theright of hot blood to run hot--you would not be a man worth knowingwere it not so. All I know or will know is that whatever the price,you have paid it--or will pay it! But tell me, Merne, can you not tearher from your soul? It will ruin you, this hopeless attachment whichyou cherish. Is it always to remain with you? I bid you find someother woman. The best in the land are waiting for you."
"Mr. Jefferson, I shall never marry."
The two sat looking into each other's eyes for just a moment. SaidThomas Jefferson at length, slowly:
"So! You have come back with all happiness, all success, for me andfor others--but not for yourself! Such proving as you have had hasfallen to the lot of but few men. I know now how great has been thecost--I see it in your face. The fifteen millions I paid for yonderlands was nothing. We have bought them with the happiness of a humansoul! The transient gratitude of this republic--the honor of thatlittle paper--bah, they are nothing! But perhaps it may be somethingfor you to know that at least one friend understands."
Lewis did not speak.
"What is lost is lost," the President began again after a time. "Whatis broken is broken. But see how clearly I look into your soul. Youare not thinking now of what you can do for yourself. You are notthinking of your new rank, your honors. You are asking now, at thismoment, what you can do for _her_! Is it not so?"
The smile that came upon the young man's face was a beautiful, awonderful thing to see. It made the wise old man sad to see it--butthoughtful, too.
"She is at Richmond, Merne?" said Mr. Jefferson a moment later.
The young man nodded.
"And the greatest boon she could ask would be her father'sfreedom--the freedom of the man who sought to ruin this country--theman whom I scarcely dare release."
The thin lips compressed for a moment. It was not in implacable,vengeful zeal--it was but in thought.
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"Now, then," said Thomas Jefferson sharply, "there comes a veil, acurtain, between you and me and all the world. No record must showthat either of us raised a hand against the full action of the law, orplanned that Colonel Burr should not suffer the full penalty of thecode. Yes, for him that is true--but _not for his daughter_!"
"Mr. Jefferson!" The face of Meriwether Lewis was strangely moved. "Isee the actual greatness of your soul; but I ask nothing."
"Why, in my heart I feel like flinging open every prison door in theworld. If you have gained an empire for your country, and paid for itas you have, could not a great and rich country afford to pay to theextent of a woman's happiness? When a king is crowned, he sets freethe criminals. And this day I feel as proud and happy as if I were aking--and king of the greatest empire of all the world! I know wellwho assured that kingdom. Let me be, then"--he raised his longhand--"say nothing, do nothing. And let this end all talk between usof these matters. I know you can keep your own counsel."
Lewis bowed silently.
"Go to Richmond, Merne. You will find there a broken conspirator andhis unhappy daughter. Both are ostracized. None is so poor as to doeither of them reverence. She has no door opened to her now, thoughbut lately she was daughter of the Vice-President, the rich Mrs.Alston, wife of the Governor of her State. Go to them now. TellColonel Burr that the President will not ask mercy for him. JohnMarshall is on the bench there; but before him is a jury--JohnRandolph is foreman of that jury. It is there that case will betried--in the jury room; and _politics will try it_! Go to Theodosia,Merne, in her desperate need."
"But what can I do, Mr. Jefferson?" broke out his listener.
"Do precisely what I tell you. Go to that social outcast. Take her onyour arm before all the world--_and before that jury_! Sit there,before all Richmond--and that jury. An hour or so will do. Do that,and then, as I did when I trusted you, ask no questions, but leave iton the knees of the gods. If you can call me chief in other matters,"the President concluded, "and can call me chief in that fashion ofthought which men call religion as well, let me give you unction andabsolution, my son. It is all that I have to give to one whom I havealways loved as if he were my own son. This is all I can do for you.It may fail; but I would rather trust that jury to be right than trustmyself today; because, I repeat, I feel like flinging open everyprison door in all the world, and telling every erring, stumbling manto try once more to do what his soul tells him he ought to do!"
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