k on crutches to his brother's home in Mississippi amid
the shouts and frenzied acclaim of a proud and grateful people. Within
three years from the day he entered public life, he took his seat in the
Senate Chamber of the United States beside Clay, Calhoun and Webster,
the peer of any man within its walls, and with the conscious power of
Knowledge and Truth, girded himself for the coming struggle of giants.

The Story

CHAPTER I

THE CURTAIN RISES

"For the Lord's sake, Jennie--"

Dick Welford paused at the bottom of a range of steps which wound up the
capitol hill from Pennsylvania Avenue.

The girl standing at the top stamped her foot imperiously.

"Hurry--hurry!"

"I won't--"

"Then I'll leave you!"

The boy laughed.

"You don't dare. It's barely sunup--still dark in spots--the boogers'll
get you--"

With a grin he deliberately sat down.

"Dick Welford, you're the laziest white man I ever saw in my life--We
won't get a seat, I tell you--"

"We can stand up."

"We won't even get our noses in the door--"

"You don't think these old Senators get up at daylight, do you?"

"They didn't go to bed last night--"

"I'll bet they didn't!" Dick laughed.

"I know one that didn't anyhow--"

"Who?"

"Senator Davis."

"How do you know?"

"Spent the night there. Father stayed so late, Mrs. Davis put me to bed.
Regular procession all night long! And among his visitors the Blackest
Republican of them all--"

"Old Abe run over from Illinois to say good-by?"

"No, but his right hand man Seward did--"

"Sly old snuff-dipping hypocrite--"

"Anyhow, he's the brains of his party."

"And he called on Jeff Davis last night?"

"Not the first time either. Mrs. Davis told me that when the Senator was
so ill with neuralgia and came near losing his sight, Seward came every
day, sat in the darkened room and talked for hours to his enemy--"

"That's because he's a Black Republican. Their ways are dark. They like
rooms with the shades pulled down--"

"Anyhow he likes Mr. Davis."

"Well, it's good-by to the old Union--how many Senators are going
to-day?"

"Yulee and Mallory from Florida, Clay and Fitzpatrick from Alabama and
Senator Davis--"

"All in a day?"

"Yes--"

"Jennie, they'll talk their heads off. It'll be three o'clock before the
first one finishes. We'll die. Let's go to Mt. Vernon--"

"Dick Welford, I'm ashamed of you. You've no patriotism at all--"

"And I just proposed