20. CHAPTER XX.
THE visit of Senator Abner Dilworthy was an event in
Hawkeye. When a Senator, whose place is in Washington
moving among the Great and guiding the destinies of the
nation, condescends to mingle among the people and accept
the hospitalities of such a place as Hawkeye, the honor is not
considered a light one. All parties are flattered by it and
politics are forgotten in the presence of one so distinguished
among his fellows.
Senator Dilworthy, who was from a neighboring state,
had been a Unionist in the darkest days of his country, and
had thriven by it, but was that any reason why Col. Sellers,
who had been a confederate and had not thriven by it, should
give him the cold shoulder?
The Senator was the guest of his old friend Gen. Boswell,
but it almost appeared that he was indebted to Col. Sellers
for the unreserved hospitalities of the town. It was the
large hearted Colonel who, in a manner, gave him the freedom
of the city.
“You are known here, sir,” said the Colonel, “and Hawkeye
is proud of you. You will find every door open, and a welcome
at every hearthstone. I should insist upon your going
to my house, if you were not claimed by your older friend
Gen. Boswell. But you will mingle with our people, and
you will see here developments that will surprise you.”
The Colonel was so profuse in his hospitality that he must
have made the impression upon himself that he had entertained
the Senator at his own mansion during his stay; at
any rate, he afterwards always spoke of him as his guest, and
not seldom referred to the Senator's relish of certain viands
on his table. He did, in fact, press him to dine upon the
morning of the day the Senator was going away.
Senator Dilworthy was large and portly, though not tall
—a pleasant spoken man, a popular man with the people.
He took a lively interest in the town and all the surrounding
country, and made many inquiries as to the progress of
agriculture, of education, and of religion, and especially as to
the condition of the emancipated race.
“Providence,” he said, “has placed them in our hands,
and although you and I, General, might have chosen a different
destiny for them, under the Constitution, yet Providence
knows best.”
“You can't do much with 'em,” interrupted Col. Sellers.
“They are a speculating race, sir, disinclined to work for
white folks without security, planning how to live by only
working for themselves. Idle, sir, there's my garden just
a ruin of weeds. Nothing practical in 'em.”
“There is some truth in your observation, Colonel, but you
must educate them.”
“You educate the niggro and you make him more speculating
than he was before. If he won't stick to any industry
except for himself now, what will he do then?”
“But, Colonel, the negro when educated will be more able
to make his speculations fruitful.”
“Never, sir, never. He would only have a wider scope to
injure himself. A niggro has no grasp, sir. Now, a white
man can conceive great operations, and carry them out; a
niggro can't.”
“Still,” replied the Senator, “granting that he might injure
[ILLUSTRATION]
ORDER, GENTLEMEN.
[Description: 499EAF. Page 188. In-line image of a man giving a speech in front of a large
indoor crowd.]
himself in a worldly point of view, his elevation through
education would multiply his chances for the hereafter—
which is the important thing after all, Colonel. And no
matter what the result is, we must fulfill our duty by this
being.”
“I'd elevate his soul,” promptly responded the Colonel;
“that's just it; you can't make his soul too immortal, but I
wouldn't touch him, himself. Yes, sir! make his soul
immortal, but don't disturb the niggro as he is.”
Of course one of the entertainments offered the Senator
was a public reception, held in the court house, at which he
made a speech to his fellow citizens. Col. Sellers was master
of ceremonies. He escorted the band from the city hotel to
Gen. Boswell's; he marshalled the procession of Mansons, of
Odd Fellows, and of Firemen, the Good Templars, the Sons
of Temperance, the Cadets of Temperance, the Daughters
of Rebecca, the Sunday School children, and citizens generally,
which followed the Senator to the court house; he bustled
about the room long after every one else was seated, and
loudly cried “Order!” in the dead silence which preceded
the introduction of the Senator by Gen. Boswell. The occasion
was one to call out his finest powers of personal appearance,
and one he long dwelt on with pleasure.
This not being an edition of the Congressional Globe it is
impossible to give Senator Dilworthy's speech in full. He
began somewhat as follows:—
“Fellow citizens: It gives me great pleasure to thus meet
and mingle with you, to lay aside for a moment the heavy
duties of an official and burdensome station, and confer in
familiar converse with my friends in your great state. The
good opinion of my fellow citizens of all sections is the sweetest
solace in all my anxieties. I look forward with longing
to the time when I can lay aside the cares of office—”
[“dam sight,” shouted a tipsy fellow near the door. Cries of
“put him out.”]
“My friends, do not remove him. Let the misguided man
stay. I see that he is a victim of that evil which is swallowing
up public virtue and sapping the foundation of society.
As I was saying, when I can lay down the cares of office and
retire to the sweets of private life in some such sweet, peaceful,
intelligent, wide-awake and patriotic place as Hawkeye
(applause). I have traveled much, I have seen all parts of
our glorious union, but I have never seen a lovelier village
than yours, or one that has more signs of commercial and
industrial and religious prosperity—(more applause).”
The Senator then launched into a sketch of our great
country, and dwelt for an hour or more upon its prosperity
and the dangers which threatened it.
He then touched reverently upon the institutions of religion,
and upon the necessity of private purity, if we were to
have any public morality. “I trust,” he said, “that there
are children within the sound of my voice,” and after some
remarks to them, the Senator closed with an apostrophe to
“the genius of American Liberty, walking with the Sunday
School in one hand and Temperance in the other up the glorified
steps of the National Capitol.”
Col. Sellers did not of course lose the opportunity to
impress upon so influential a person as the Senator the
desirability of improving the navigation of Columbus river.
He and Mr. Brierly took the Senator over to Napoleon and
opened to him their plan. It was a plan that the Senator
could understand without a great deal of explanation, for he
seemed to be familiar with the like improvements elsewhere.
When, however, they reached Stone's Landing the Senator
looked about him and inquired,
“Is this Napoleon?”
“This is the nucleus, the nucleus,” said the Colonel, unrolling
his map. “Here is the deepo, the church, the City Hall
and so on.”
“Ah, I see. How far from here is Columbus River?
Does that stream empty—”
“That, why, that's Goose Run. Thar ain't no Columbus,
thout'n it's over to Hawkeye,” interrupted one of the citizens,
who had come out to stare at the strangers. “A railroad
come here last summer, but it haint been here no mo'. ”
“Yes, sir,” the Colonel hastened to explain, “in the old
records Columbus River is called Goose Run. You see how
it sweeps round the town—forty-nine miles to the Missouri;
sloop navigation all the way pretty much, drains this whole
country; when it's improved steamboats will run right up
here. It's got to be enlarged, deepened. You see by the
map, Columbus River. This country must have water communication!”
“You'll want a considerable appropriation, Col. Sellers.
“I should say a million; is that your figure Mr. Brierly.”
“According to our surveys,” said Harry, “a million would
do it; a million spent on the river would make Napoleon
worth two millions at least.”
“I see,” nodded the Senator. “But you'd better begin by
asking only for two or three hundred thousand, the usual
way. You can begin to sell town lots on that appropriation.
you know.”
The Senator, himself, to do him justice, was not very much
interested in the country or the stream, but he favored the appropriation,
and he gave the Colonel and Mr. Brierly to understand
that he would endeavor to get it through. Harry, who
thought he was shrewd and understood Washington, suggested
an interest.
But he saw that the Senator was wounded by the suggestion.
“You will offend me by repeating such an observation,”
he said. “Whatever I do will be for the public interest. It
will require a portion of the appropriation for necessary expenses,
and I am sorry to say that there are members who
will have to be seen. But you can reckon upon my humble
services.”
This aspect of the subject was not again alluded to. The
Senator possessed himself of the facts, not from his observation
of the ground, but from the lips of Col. Sellers, and laid
the appropriation scheme away among his other plans for
benefiting the public.
It was on this visit also that the Senator made the acquaintance
of Mr. Washington Hawkins, and was greatly taken
with his innocence, his guileless manner and perhaps with
his ready adaptability to enter upon any plan proposed.
Col. Sellers was pleased to see this interest that Washington
had awakened, especially since it was likely to further his
expectations with regard to the Tennessee lands; the Senator
having remarked to the Colonel, that he delighted to help
any deserving young man, when the promotion of a private
advantage could at the same time be made to contribute to
the general good. And he did not doubt that this was an
opportunity of that kind.
The result of several conferences with Washington was
that the Senator proposed that he should go to Washington
with him and become his private secretary and the secretary
of his committee; a proposal which was eagerly accepted.
The Senator spent Sunday in Hawkeye and attended
church. He cheered the heart of the worthy and zealous
minister by an expression of his sympathy in his labors, and
by many inquiries in regard to the religious state of the
region. It was not a very promising state, and the good man
felt how much lighter his task would be, if he had the aid of
such a man as Senator Dilworthy.
“I am glad to see, my dear sir,” said the Senator, “that
you give them the doctrines. It is owing to a neglect of the
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THE SENATOR'S WALK.
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with a woman in a large dress.]
doctrines, that there is such a fearful falling away in the
country. I wish that we might have you in Washington—
as chaplain, now, in the senate.”
The good man could not but be a little flattered, and if
sometimes, thereafter, in his discouraging work, he allowed
the thought that he might perhaps be called to Washington
as chaplain of the Senate, to cheer him, who can wonder.
The Senator's commendation at least did one service for him,
it elevated him in the opinion of Hawkeye.
Laura was at church alone that day, and Mr. Brierly walked
home with her. A part of their way lay with that of General
Boswell and Senator Dilworthy, and introductions were
made. Laura had her own reasons for wishing to know the
Senator, and the Senator was not a man who could be called
indifferent to charms such as hers. That meek young
lady so commended herself to him in the short walk, that he
announced his intentions of paying his respects to her the
next day, an intention which Harry received glumly; and
when the Senator was out of hearing he called him “an old
fool.”
“Fie,” said Laura, “I do believe you are jealous, Harry.
He is a very pleasant man. He said you were a young man
of great promise.”
The Senator did call next day, and the result of his
visit was that he was confirmed in his impression that there
was something about him very attractive to ladies. He saw
Laura again and again during his stay, and felt more and more
the subtle influence of her feminine beauty, which every man
felt who came near her.
Harry was beside himself with rage while the Senator remained
in town; he declared that women were always ready
to drop any man for higher game; and he attributed his own
ill-luck to the Senator's appearance. The fellow was in fact
crazy about her beauty and ready to beat his brains out in
chagrin. Perhaps Laura enjoyed his torment, but she soothed
him with blandishments that increased his ardor, and she
smiled to herself to think that he had, with all his protestations
of love, never spoken of marriage. Probably the vivacious
fellow never had thought of it. At any rate when he
at length went away from Hawkeye he was no nearer it.
But there was no telling to what desperate lengths his passion
might not carry him.
Laura bade him good bye with tender regret, which, however,
did not disturb her peace or interfere with her plans.
The visit of Senator Dilworthy had become of more importance
to her, and it by and by bore the fruit she longed for,
in an invitation to visit his family in the National Capital
during the winter session of Congress.
