The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-06
SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY. DECEMBER g. 1908
BY ALFRED henry LEWIS
Copyrighted, 1908, by
A. j. Drexel Biddle.
Entered at stationer's
Hall, London.

look TO enjoy the fruits OF their VIC
tory They see no harm in the aphor-
ism, TO the victor belongs the spoil
of the enemy Marcy, l say, had
not yet uttered these words in the Sem
ate: but they dwelt with him as a sem
timent; he had given them expression
IT. Duff Green's paper; and since the
General said nothing in negation, they
were held to declare the feelings of the
administration.
Before this, I have written some
where, have I not?-for old age can
not hold n memry, nor tell lucid
story step by step, but forever must
wander to the garrulous this-side-or-
that, with topic alien to the task in
hand-how 1 caught some fash of the
Generals uncertainty of Van Buren,
and the pose that gentleman would
take on? 1t fell in this kind. l had
asked then a question about Van Blu
rem, and how he compared with his fell
low captain, Marcy. The General
shook uncertain head.
| Van Buren, may surprise u.s., said
he, "and show me wrong besides; but
this is what l think. You are to bear
| in mind, also, that his selection to be
at my cabinet right hand was not per-
sonal, but political. Here is how hold
him." Now the General spoke with
thoughtful, measured flow of speech,
| as though his eye were turned to in
| trospection, and he read, as one reads
a page of print, his estimate of him
whom he sought to weigh. ivan Bu-
rem is essentially furtive, lurking, cat
| like. He delights in moonlight politics
| and follows the byways. He avoids
! the eye, is seldom in the show ring,
and, in making his excursions, sticks to
the lanes and keeps off the highways
! Few men see, and fewer know, Van
Buren,. He is sly rather than bold;
chicanes rather than assails; and when
attacked he does not fight in that
/; strifish sense of hard knocks, He pois-
| ons the springs and streams and stand
p. ing water; and then he falls back into
, the hills. Van Buren, does with snares
! what others do by blows; traps while
| others hunt. And yet in feline way,
he likes trouble. Set out a bowl of
| milk and a bowl of blood, and turn
| your back. If sure of unobservation,
| he will lap the blood. But If you stare
at him, he Ensembles with the milk,
purring with fervor sedulous. Ever Sc
| cret, Van Buren, knows of no harder
| fate than mere discovery. His points
| of power are his egotism, his skill for
sly effort, his talent as a trader of
politics. Marcy is of another sort.
| Marcy is vigorous where Van Buren,
is fine. If a band of music were to
go by, Marcy would regard the bass
drum as the great instrument. Van
Buren, would prefer the piccolo. Marcy
does his war work with an ak. When
any homicide of politics enforces itself
upon Van Buren, he moves with sack
and bowstring. He waits until mid
night, and then, with victim gagged
and bagged and bound, browns him in
the Bosphorus of party"
Even as the General spoke, Van Bu-
rem was trudging up the street; for it
would appear that he had come into
town the hour before, and now made
speed to pay his respects to the Cen
| eral
While Van Buren, was in talk with
! the General our first greetings being
! done, l strove to come by some true
account of one who was like to make
| for much weight in the scales. He
! was round, short, and by no means
superb or imposing. Standing between
the General and myself and both of
us above six feet, he seemed something
stunted. There was a quiet twinkle in
his gray, intelligent eye that he drew
from his tavern keeping sire of Kin
| derhook; the latter being of shrewd
: Dutch stock, born to count pennies and
to save them, and whose profits with
his inn found partial coinage in an
| education above bottles and taprooms
for his son. There lowered an oily
piece about Van Buren,; it showed on
him like painted color. l was not ire
! mendously impressed of him, l grant
you albeit, before all was DONE came
| to better learn him. The man, for a
best simile. was like so much quicksil-
YER Bright and of surprising weight,
he rolled away from touch and never
failed to fit himself scrupulously and
plausibly into every inequality which
the surface he rested on presented. He
came to be, as you may think, pre-
cisey the man for the General; since,
/ while the one was as apt for heat as
Sahara, and as much the home of hur-
| ricaneS, the other under no stress was
ever known to give or take offense. He
would be without quilts, this Van Blu
, rem, and yet no porcupine in his rat
Ting armor went about more perfect
| to his own defense or SO equal for the
problem of his own security
Van Buren, made no lengthy stay
with u.s. there was a hand-shake; a
talk of a moment, bow, and he was
back to his quarters in the Indian
| Queen.
"And what do you say of him?" ask
ed the General when now his new sec
rotary was gone.
"Why, sir" replied, II should call
your story of the man a good one. But
| he does not look so strong as you
would make him."
"Why, then" returned the General,
neither does any other thing of silk"
| Then, after a pause: Just as an in
situation is stronger than a direct
charge, so is Van Buren, stronger than
other men. / warrant you, as we stand
here with all our wisdom, he holds our
measures more nearly than we hold
| his"
! The General you are to observe, and
whether early or late. never said a
word to Van Buren, of Peg and the viii
lain forays against her fame; the GEN
eral was too proud for that. The de-
tense of Peg seemed a thing personal
to his heart: with him it owned no
place in politics or the business of the
state. Therefore, he would ask no
mans aid, and folk on that quarrel
might be neutral or pick their sides
and go what ways they would.
The General, say, beheld nothing of
politics in the question of his defense
of Peg; it was wholly the thing per-
sonal. He never realized, what is clear
to you and me, that everything was
the thing personal with him, and poll
tics thing most personal of ALL Even
now, since he had found the Palmetto
coterie to be among his enemies, and
within short weeks of the birth of his
first rancor against Calhoun as one who
had sought to do him hiden harm
while apeing friendship and aiming at
his betrayal with a kiss he had COM
menced to nourish a steady wrath
against that statesman's politics of Sc
cession and states rights. This latter
he was cultivating and feeding in all
possible fashion.
One day / came upon him deep with
in Marshalls definitions of treason as
declared in the trial of Aaron Burr
There's the law for YOU" he cried.
nit r,NAa Nf lfaf fO,. IL. 1,