The Clansman
BOOK I
THE ASSASSINATION
CHAPTER III
The Man of War
ELSIE led Mrs. Cameron direct from the White House to the War Department.
“Well, Mrs. Cameron, what did you think of the President?” she asked.
“I hardly know,” was the thoughtful answer. “He is the greatest man I ever
met. One feels this instinctively.”
When Mrs. Cameron was ushered into the Secretary’s Office, Mr. Stanton was
seated at his desk writing.
She handed the order of the President to a clerk, who gave it to the
Secretary.
He was a man in the full prime of life, intellectual and physical, low and
heavy set, about five feet eight inches in height and inclined to fat. His
movements, however, were quick, and as he swung in his chair the keenest vigour
marked every movement of body and every change of his countenance.
His face was swarthy and covered with a long, dark beard touched with gray.
He turned a pair of little black piercing eyes on her and without rising
said:
“So you are the woman who has a wounded son under sentence of death as a
guerilla?”
“I am so unfortunate,” she answered.
“Well, I have nothing to say to you,” he went on in a louder and
sterner tone, “and no time to waste on you. If you have raised up men to rebel
against the best government under the sun, you can take the consequences——”
“But, my dear sir,” broke in the mother, “he is a mere boy of nineteen, who
ran away three years ago and entered the service——”
“I don’t want to hear another word from you!” he yelled in rage. “I have no
time to waste—go at once. I’ll do nothing for you.”
“But I bring you an order from the President,” protested the mother.
“Yes, I know it,” he answered with a sneer, “and I’ll do with it what I’ve
done with many others—see that it is not executed—now go.”
“But the President told me you would give me a pass to the hospital, and that
a full pardon would be issued to my boy!”
“Yes, I see. But let me give you some information. The President is a fool—a
d—— fool! Now, will you go?”
With a sinking sense of horror, Mrs. Cameron withdrew and reported to Elsie
the unexpected encounter.
“The brute!” cried the girl. “We’ll go back immediately and report this
insult to the President.”
“Why are such men intrusted with power?” the mother sighed.
“It’s a mystery to me, I’m sure. They say he is the greatest Secretary of War
in our history. I don’t believe it. Phil hates the sight of him, and so does
every army officer I know, from General Grant down. I hope Mr.
Lincoln will expel him from the Cabinet for this insult.”
When, they were again ushered into the President’s office, Elsie hastened to
inform him of the outrageous reply the Secretary of War had made to his
order.
“Did Stanton say that I was a fool?” he asked, with a quizzical look out of
his kindly eyes.
“Yes, he did,” snapped Elsie. “And he repeated it with a blankety
prefix.”
The President looked good-humouredly out of the window toward the War Office
and musingly said:
“Well, if Stanton says that I am a blankety fool, it must be so, for I have
found out that he is nearly always right, and generally means what he says. I’ll
just step over and see Stanton.”
As he spoke the last sentence, the humour slowly faded from his face, and the
anxious mother saw back of those patient gray eyes the sudden gleam of the
courage and conscious power of a lion.
He dismissed them with instructions to return the next day for his final
orders and walked over to the War Department alone.
The Secretary of War was in one of his ugliest moods, and made no effort to
conceal it when asked his reasons for the refusal to execute the order.
“The grounds for my action are very simple,” he said with bitter emphasis.
“The execution of this traitor is part of a carefully considered policy of
justice on which the future security of the Nation depends. If I am to
administer this office, I will not be hamstrung by constant Executive
interference. Besides, in this particular case, I was urged that justice be
promptly executed by the most powerful man in Congress. I advise you to avoid a
quarrel with old Stoneman at this crisis in our history.”
The President sat on a sofa with his legs crossed, relapsed into an attitude
of resignation, and listened in silence until the last sentence, when suddenly
he sat bolt upright, fixed his deep gray eyes intently on Stanton and said:
“Mr. Secretary, I reckon you will have to execute that order.”
“I cannot do it,” came the firm answer. “It is an interference with justice,
and I will not execute it.”
Mr. Lincoln held his eyes steadily on Stanton and slowly said:
“Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done.”
Stanton wheeled in his chair, seized a pen and wrote very rapidly a few lines
to which he fixed his signature. He rose with the paper in his hand, walked to
his chief, and with deep emotion said:
“Mr. President, I wish to thank you for your constant friendship during the
trying years I have held this office. The war is ended, and my work is done. I
hand you my resignation.”
Mr. Lincoln’s lips came suddenly together, he slowly rose, and looked down
with surprise into the flushed angry face.
He took the paper, tore it into pieces, slipped one of his long arms around
the Secretary, and said in low accents:
“Stanton, you have been a faithful public servant, and it is not for you to
say when you will no longer be needed. Go on with your work. I will have my way
in this matter; but I will attend to it personally.”
Stanton resumed his seat, and the President returned to the White House.