It was after midnight of election day before we knew the result, so
close were the two most important doubtful states.
Scarborough had swept the rural districts and the small towns. But we
had beaten him in the cities where the machines and other purchasable
organizations were powerful. His state gave him forty-two thousand
plurality, Burbank carried his own state by less than ten thousand--and
in twenty-four years our majority there in presidential campaigns had
never before been less than forty thousand.
By half-past one, the whole capital city knew that Burbank had won. And
they flocked and swarmed out the road to his modest "retreat," until
perhaps thirty thousand people were shouting, blowing horns, singing,
sending up rockets and Roman candles, burning red fire, lighting
bonfires in and near the grounds. I had come down from Fredonia to be
in instant touch with Burbank and the whole national machine, should
there arise at the last minute necessity for bold and swift action. When
Burbank finally yielded to the mob and showed himself on his porch with
us, his immediate associates, about him, I for the first time
unreservedly admired him. For the man inside seemed at last to swell
until the presidential pose he had so long worn prematurely was filled
to a perfect fit. And in what he said as well as in the way he said it
there was an unexpected dignity and breadth and force. "I have made him
President," I thought, "and it looks as if the presidency had made him a
man."
After he finished, Croffut spoke, and Senator Berwick of Illinois. Then
rose a few calls for me. They were drowned in a chorus of hoots, toots
and hisses. Burbank cast a quick glance of apprehension at me--again
that hidden conviction of my vanity, this time shown in dread lest it
should goad me into hating him. I smiled reassuringly at him--and I can
say in all honesty that the smile came from the bottom of my heart. An
hour later, as I bade him good night, I said:
"I believe the man and the opportunity have met, Mr. President. God
bless you."
Perhaps it was the unusualness of my speaking with feeling that caused
the tears to start in his eyes. "Thank you, Harvey," he replied,
clasping my hand in both his. "I realize now the grave responsibility. I
need the help of every friend--the _true_ help of every _true_ friend.
And I know what I owe to you just as clearly as if _she_ were here to
remind me."
I was too moved to venture a reply. Woodruff and I drove to the hotel
together--the crowd hissing me wherever it recognized me. Woodruff
looked first on one side then on the other, muttering at them. "The
fools!" he said to me, with his abrupt, cool laugh. "Just like them,
isn't it? Cheering the puppet, hissing its proprietor."
I made no answer--what did it matter? Not for Burbank's position and
opportunity, as in that hour of emotion they appeared even to us who
knew politics from behind the scenes, not for the reality of what the
sounding title of President seems to mean, would I have changed with
him, would I have paid the degrading price he had paid. I preferred my
own position--if I had bowed the knee, at least it was not to men. As
for hisses, I saw in them a certain instinctive tribute to my power. The
mob cheers its servant, hisses its master.
"Doc," said I, "do you want to go to the Senate instead of Croffut?"
By the flames on the torches on either side I saw his amazement. "Me?"
he exclaimed. "Why, you forget I've got a past."
"I do," said I, "and so does every one else. All we know is that you've
got a future."
He drew in his breath hard and leaned back into the corner where the
shadow hid him. At last he said in a quiet earnest voice: "You've given
me self-respect, Senator. I can only say--I'll see that you never regret
it."
I was hissed roundly at the hotel entrance, between cheers for Croffut
and Berwick, and even for Woodruff. But I went to bed in the most
cheerful, hopeful humor I had known since the day Scarborough was
nominated. "At any rate"--so I was thinking--"my President, with my
help, will be a man."