THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.
General Belch's office was in the lower part of Nassau Street. At the
outer door there was a modest slip of a tin sign, "Arcularius Belch,
Attorney and Counselor." The room itself was dingy and forlorn. There was
no carpet on the floor; the windows were very dirty, and slats were
broken out of the blinds--the chairs did not match--there was a wooden
book-case, with a few fat law-books lounging upon the shelves; the table
was a chaos of pamphlets, printed forms, newspapers, and files of
letters, with a huge inkstand, inky pens, and a great wooden sand-box.
Upon each side of the chimney, the grate in which was piled with crushed
pieces of waste paper, and the bars of which were discolored with tobacco
juice, stood two large spittoons, the only unsoiled articles in the
office.
This was the place in which General Belch did business. It had the
atmosphere of Law. But, above all, it was the spot where, with one leg
swinging over the edge of the table and one hand waving in earnest
gesticulation, General Belch could say to every body who came, and
especially to his poorer fellow-citizens, "I ask no office; I am content
with my moderate practice. It is enough for me, in this glorious country,
to be a friend of the people."
As he said this--or only implied it in saying something else--the broken
slats, the dirty windows, the uncarpeted floor, the universal untidiness,
whispered in the mind of the hearer, "Amen!"
His residence, however, somewhat atoned for the discomfort of his office.
Not unfrequently he entertained his friends sumptuously; and whenever any
of the representatives of his party, who acted in Congress as his private
agents, had succeeded--as on one occasion, already commemorated, the Hon.
Mr. Ele had--in putting a finer edge upon a favorite axe, General Belch
entertained a select circle who agreed with him in his political
philosophy, and were particular friends of the people and of the
popular institutions of their country.
Abel Newt, in response to the General's note, had already called at that
gentleman's office, and had received overtures from him, who offered him
Mr. Bodley's seat in Congress, upon condition that he was able to see
things from particular points of view.
"Mr. Watkins Bodley, it seems," said General Belch, "and I regret to
say it, is in straitened pecuniary circumstances. I understand he will
feel that he owes it to his family to resign before the next session.
There will be a vacancy; and I am glad to say that the party is just
now in a happy state of harmony, and that my influence will secure your
nomination. But come up to-night and talk it over. I have asked Ele and
Slugby, and a few others--friends of course--and I hope Mr. Bat will drop
in. You know Aquila Bat?"
"By reputation," replied Abel.
"He is a very quiet man, but very shrewd. He gives great dignity and
weight to the party. A tremendous lawyer Bat is. I suppose he is at the
very head of the profession in this country. You'll come?"
Abel was most happy to accept. He was happy to go any where for
distraction. For the rooms in Grand Street had become inconceivably
gloomy. There were no more little parties there: the last one was given
in honor of Mrs. Sligo Moultrie--before her marriage. The elegant youth
of the town gradually fell off from frequenting Abel's rooms, for he
always proposed cards, and the stakes were enormous; which was a
depressing circumstance to young gentlemen who mainly depended upon
the paternal purse. Such young gentlemen as Zephyr Wetherley, who was
for a long time devoted to young Mrs. Mellish Whitloe, and sent her the
loveliest fans, and buttons, and little trinkets, which he selected at
Marquand's. But when the year came round the bill was inclosed to Mr.
Wetherley, senior, who, after a short and warm interview with his son
Zephyr, inclosed it in turn to Whitloe himself; who smiled, and paid it,
and advised his wife to buy her own jewelry in future.
It was not pleasant for young Wetherley, and his friends in a similar
situation, to sit down to a night at cards with such a desperate player
as Abel Newt. Besides, his rooms had lost that air of voluptuous elegance
which was formerly so unique. The furniture was worn out, and not
replaced. The decanters and bottles were no longer kept in a pretty
side-board, but stood boldly out, ready for instant service; and whenever
one of the old set of men happened in, he was very likely to find a
gentleman--whose toilet was suspiciously fine, whose gold looked like
gilt--who made himself entirely at home with Abel and his rooms, and
whose conversation indicated that his familiar haunts were race-courses,
bar-rooms, and gambling-houses.
It was unanimously decreed that Abel Newt had lost tone. His dress
was gradually becoming flashy. Younger sisters, who had heard their
elders--who were married now--speak of the fascinating Mr. Newt,
perceived that the fascinating Mr. Newt was a little too familiar when
he flirted, and that his breath was offensive with spirituous fumes. He
was noisy in the gentlemen's dressing-room. The stories he told there
were of such a character, and he told them so loudly, that more than once
some husband, whose wife was in the neighboring room, had remonstrated
with him. Sligo Moultrie, during one of the winters that he passed in the
city after his marriage, had a fierce quarrel with Abel for that very
reason. They would have come to blows but that their friends parted them.
Mr. Moultrie sent a friend with a note the following morning, and Mr.
Newt acknowledged that he had been rude.
In the evening, at General Belch's, Abel was presented to all the guests.
Mr. Ele was happy to remember a previous occasion upon which he had had
the honor, etc. Mr. Enos Slugby (Chairman of our Ward Committee,
whispered Belch, audibly, as he introduced him) was very glad to know
a gentleman who bore so distinguished a name. Every body had a little
compliment, to which Abel bowed and smiled politely, while he observed
that the residence was much more comfortable than the office of General
Belch.
They went into the dining-room and sat down to what Mr. Slugby called "a
Champagne supper." They ate birds and oysters, and drank wine. Then they
ate jellies, blanc mange, and ice-cream. Then they ate nuts and fruit,
and drank coffee. Then every thing was removed, and fresh decanters,
fresh glasses, and a box of cigars were placed upon the table, and the
servants were told that they need not come until summoned.
At this point a dry, grave, thin, little old man opened the door. General
Belch rose and rushed forward.
"My dear Mr. Bat, I am very happy. Sit here, Sir. Gentlemen, you all know
Mr. Bat."
The company was silent for a moment, and bowed. Abel looked up and saw a
man who seemed to be made of parchment, and his complexion, of the hue of
dried apples, suggested that he was usually kept in a warm green satchel.
After a little more murmuring of talk around the table, General Belch
said, in a louder voice,
"Gentlemen, we have a new friend among us, and a little business to
settle to-night. Suppose we talk it over."
There was a general filling of glasses and a hum of assent.
"I learn," said the General, whiffing the smoke from his mouth, "that
our worthy friend and able representative, Watkins Bodley, is about
resigning, in consequence of private embarrassments. Of course he must
have a successor."
Every body poured out smoke and looked at the speaker, except Mr. Bat,
who seemed to be undergoing a little more drying up, and looked at a
picture of General Jackson, which hung upon the wall.
"That successor, I need not say, of course," continued General Belch,
"must be a good man and a faithful adherent of the party. He must be the
consistent enemy of a purse-proud aristocracy."
"He must, indeed," said Mr. Enos Slugby, whisking a little of the ash
from his cigar off an embroidered shirt-bosom, in doing which the flash
from a diamond ring upon his finger dazzled Abel, who had turned as he
spoke.
"He must espouse the immortal cause of popular rights, and be willing to
spend and be spent for the people."
"That's it," said Mr. William Condor, whose sinecure under government was
not worth less than twenty thousand a year.
"He must always uphold the honor of the glorious flag of our country."
"Excuse me, General Belch, but I can not control my feelings; I must
propose three cheers," interrupted Alderman MacDennis O'Rourke; and the
three cheers were heartily given.
"And this candidate must be equally the foe of class legislation and the
friend of State rights."
Here Mr. Bat moved his head, as if he were assenting to a remark of his
friend General Jackson.
"And I surely need not add that it would be the first and most sacred
point of honor with this candidate to serve his party in every thing, to
be the unswerving advocate of all its measures, and implicitly obedient
to all its behests," said General Belch.
"Which behests are to be learned by him from the authorized leaders of
the party," said Mr. Enos Slugby.
"Certainly," said half of the gentlemen.
"Of course," said the other half.
During the remarks that General Belch had been making his eyes were fixed
upon Abel Newt, who understood that this was a political examination, in
which the questions asked included the answers that were to be given.
When the General had ended, the company sat intently smoking for some
time, and filling and emptying their glasses.
"Mr. Bat," said General Belch, "what is your view?"
Mr. Bat removed his eyes from General Jackson's portrait, and cleared his
throat.
"I think," he said, closing his eyes, and rubbing his fingers along his
eyebrows, "that the party holding to the only constitutional policy is
to be supported at all hazards, and I think the great party to which
we belong is that party. Our principles are all true, and our measures
are all just. Speculative persons and dreamers talk about independent
political action. But politics always beget parties. Governments are
always managed by parties, and parties are always managed by--"
The dried-apple complexion at this point assumed an ashy hue, as if
something very indiscreet had been almost uttered. Mr. Bat's eyes opened
and saw Abel's fixed upon him with a peculiar intelligence. The whole
party looked a little alarmed at Mr. Bat, and apprehensively at the
new-comer. Mr. Ele frowned at General Belch,
"What does he mean?"
But Abel relieved the embarrassment by quietly completing Mr. Bat's
sentence--
--"by the managers."
His black eyes glittered around the table, and Mr. Ele remembered a
remark of General Belch's about Mr. Newt's riding upon the shoulders
of his fellow-laborers.
"Exactly, by the managers," said every body.
"And now," said General Belch, cheerfully, "whom had we better propose to
our fellow-citizens as a proper candidate for their suffrages to succeed
the Honorable Mr. Bodley?"
He leaned back and puffed. Mr. Ele, who had had a little previous
conversation with the host, here rose and said, that, if he might
venture, he would say, although it was an entirely unpremeditated thing,
which had, in fact, only struck him while he had been sitting at that
hospitable board, but had impressed him so forcibly that he could not
resist speaking--if he might venture, he would say that he knew a most
able and highly accomplished gentleman--in fact, it had occurred to him
that there was then present a gentleman who would be precisely the man
whom they might present to the people as a candidate suitable in every
way.
General Belch looked at Abel, and said, "Mr. Ele, whom do you mean?"
"I refer to Mr. Abel Newt," responded the Honorable Mr. Ele.
The company looked as companies which have been prepared for a surprise
always look when the surprise comes.
"Is Mr. Newt sound in the faith?" asked Mr. William Condor, smiling.
"I answer for him," replied Mr. Ele.
"For instance, Mr. Newt," said Mr. Enos Slugby, who was interested in
General Belch's little plans, "you have no doubt that Congress ought to
pass the grant to purchase the land for Fort Arnold, which has been
offered to it by the company of which our friend General Belch is
counsel?"
"None at all," replied Abel. "I should work for it as hard as I could."
This was not unnatural, because General Belch had promised him an
interest in the sale.
"Really, then," said Mr. William Condor, who was also a proprietor,
"I do not see that a better candidate could possibly be offered to our
fellow-citizens. The General Committee meet to-morrow night. They will
call the primaries, and the Convention will meet next week. I think we
all understand each other. We know the best men in our districts to go
to the Convention. The thing seems to me to be very plain."
"Very," said the others, smoking.
"Shall it be Abel Newt?" said Mr. Condor.
"Ay!" answered the chorus.
"I propose the health of the Honorable Abel Newt, whom I cordially
welcome as a colleague," said Mr. Ele.
Bumpers were drained. It was past midnight, and the gentlemen rose. They
came to Abel and shook his hand; then they swarmed into the hall and put
on their hats and coats.
"Stay, Newt," whispered Belch, and Abel lingered.
The Honorable B.J. Ele also lingered, as if he would like to be the last
out of the house; for although this distinguished statesman did not care
to do otherwise than as General Belch commanded, he was anxious to be the
General's chief butler, while the remark about riding on his companions'
shoulders and the personal impression Abel had made upon him, had
seriously alarmed him.
While he was busily looking at the portrait of General Jackson, General
Belch stepped up to him and put out his hand.
"Good-night, my dear Ele! Thank you! thank you! These things will not be
forgotten. Good-night! good-night!" And he backed the Honorable B. Jawley
Ele out of the room into the hall.
"This is your coat, I think," said he, taking up a garment and helping
Mr. Ele to get it on. "Ah, you luxurious dog! you're a pretty friend of
the people, with such a splendid coat as this. Good-night! good-night!"
he added, helping his guest toward the door.
"Hallo, Condor!" he shouted up the street. "Here's Ele--don't leave him
behind; wait for him!"
He put him put of the door. "There, my dear fellow, Condor's waiting for
you! Good-night! Ten thousand thanks! A pretty friend of the people, hey?
Oh, you cunning dog! Good-night!"
General Belch closed the door and returned to the drawing-room. Abel Newt
was sitting with one leg over the back of the chair, and a tumbler of
brandy before him, smoking.
"God!" said Abel, laughing, as the General returned, "I wouldn't treat a
dog as you do that man."
"My dear Mr. Representative," returned Belch, "you, as a legislator and
public man, ought to know that Order is Heaven's first law."