The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-20


dency, which was his invincible am
| bition. What Calhoun hoped was, by
a deafening din of threat on his peo-
pies part of secession and rebellion,
| and every whatnot of stark treason
| besides, to browbeat the General to his
| will of NullificatiOn; and thus by the
one stroke to so fix himself in the van
| of victorious sentiment that no one
might stay his march of White House
conquest. And in good truth, thus ar
gued the General
But he should beware" said the
! General Calhoun and his cohorts
shall not steal a march on the old SOL
der. They must not go too far. A
| conspiracy to do treason exists, and
Calhoun is at its head. But the mere
conspiracy is not enough. Marshall
| lays 1t down how folk cannot think
| treason cannot talk treason, and that
| treason to be treason must be acted
| There must be the overt act; and
though it be but the act of one. it
| attaches to every member of the con-
spiracy and becomes the treason of all
If one man so much as snap a South
| Carolina flint, that is an act to fall
| within the law, and the treason is
the treason of Calhoun. l say, he
should take heed for himself; whether
he know it or no, the man walks
among pitfalls"
But you should be prepared" 1 said.
eve will go upon the work at once"
| returned the General. Winfield Scott
| shall proceed to Charleston; the fleet
| shall convene in the bay; Castle Pinck-
pey shall have a hundred thousand
| stand of arms; and we will write to our
| old Indian fighters, Crockett and Cof-
fee and Houston and Dale and Over
ton and the rest, to lie ready with
one hundred thousand rihemen in Ten
| nessee and North Carolina to over
whelm these rebellionists at the drop
ping of a handkerchief"
This converse, recall, came off one
| afternoon when the General was in
more healthful fettle than stood COM
mon during those days of fear for his
| life. Peg sat with us; indeed, it was
| news she gave us from a Charleston
paper to bring down all this talk.
Peg, silent yet interested, listened
while the General laid out his pur-
poses.
And if the Vice President were
taken for treason, what them" asked
Peg, in a kind of innocence. what
would you do with him?"
HE shall hang, child" and the Cen
eral spoke slowly and with granite
emphasis; ''he shall hang as high as
| tors for all time"
1t was then, and for the first time,
| as the General sank back spent, and
| in his weakness almost consumed of
| his own fires, there broke on me the
| whole peril of Calhoun. I knew the
| General too we'll to distrust the execu-
ton of his rope-and- gibbet threat. I
| was the more confirmed when that ev-
| ening he would have me go about a
| score of letters ordering the readiness
of those ships and arms and men he
had outlined. A Gordon of power was
| to be thrown about Calhoun and the
| ground beneath him mined for his de-
| struction.
Now if the General through this long
summer grew to a better acquaintance
with Peg, the same also might be told
of me. And hardly a day was to dawn
| and die when in the unique turns and
| twists of her manifold nature she would
not come upon me in a novel light.
| She was never to be twice the same,
and my sluggish apprehension could
scarce keep pace with the changes of
her.
| For a specimen, then, of how she
would stand against me over a wrong
claim, and her skill in it's defense. One
| morning she had drawn me off to the
northward for a walk. The day was
| by no means sultry, and a breeze was
| blowing and so induced a temperature
| which made the exercise a joy. We
were rambling through deep valley
| Peg and (which was the home of a
| brawling rivulet, and making a slow
| journey of it, since the way, broken
by boulders and sown with thickets
| in between, was something of the
| toughest. While about this pleasant
toll Peg broke forth:
DO you see that vine?" Here she
pointed to a creeper luxuriant and rich,
which, failing of support to climb by,
| ran all about on the ground. THAT
| vine is like me. 1t needs a trelis-
asks some tall and strong tree to clasp
| and love and grow upon. Given a
| tree to touch the heavens, that loving
vine would climb upward to kiss the
! heavens with her tree. Wanting her
| tree-poor Vine!-she grovels about the
| ground. That vine and I are the
| same"
To this 1 offered no response, for I
could not see how the matter called
for debate; and then her fancy was
| like unto shooting star and no one
might foresee its fight or prophesy its
course. However, Peg did not ask re-
| ply. Away she plunged in a new di-
| rection.
SHOULD one control his love, to send
it here or there like a dog?"
why" said l. the thing is out of
| the question. Ones love is not a crea-
ture of bit and bride, to be guided as
one guides a horse. 1 should say that
no one controls his love, but is con-
trolled by it,
"See there, now! A second Daniel!''
cried Peg, with little flicker of de-
rision. For all that, 1 could tell how
she agreed with me. She went on:
'"rhen one is not to blame how ones
love wanders, since one has 1t in no
leading-string. Should one marry with
out lover"
"Of a verify! no." I retorted. at
would be to cheat the other of every
| chance of happiness"
''If one be not to blame" said Peg,
| in a wandering way of talk, "if one
be not to blame for the birth of one s
love, neither should one be blamed for
its death. And If one is not to marry
without love, one should not continue,
the wife with the husband, nor he
with her, when love has met it's end.
You yourself have shown me the wrong
of that. All, Watchdog! am ] not
right?"
Now, in all my days" said I, ~
| have not been made to talk so much
on love. The question is above me-"
You said folk should not wed want
ing love" Peg paused TO stamp her
foot at me in saucy vehemence. IF
that be true, then folk should not
remain welded wanting love. DO you
not think, II n wife were TO cease 70
I love her husband she should leave