On his first battle field at the head of his Mississippi regiment, he planted the flag of the Republic on the Grand Plaza of Monterey. And in the supreme crisis of the battle of Buena Vista, with the blood streaming from his wounds, he led his men in a charge against overwhelming odds, turned the tide from defeat to victory and gave the Presidency to the man who had denied to him his daughter's hand.

He hobbled back 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--"

d.i.c.k 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.

"d.i.c.k 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!" d.i.c.k 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--"

"d.i.c.k Welford, I'm ashamed of you. You've no patriotism at all--"

"And I just proposed a pilgrimage to the home of George Washington!"

"You don't care what happens in the Senate Chamber to-day--"

"No--I don't."

The boy's lazy figure slowly rose, mounted the steps, paused and looked down into the tense eager young face.

"You really want to know," he began slowly, "why speaking tires me now?"

"Yes--why?"

"Because it's a waste of breath--we're going to fight!"