54-40 or Fight | Page 2

America. But then--" Calhoun raised a long, thin hand. "Why," he went
on slowly, "I have just told you that I have failed. And yet you, my old
friend, whom I ought to trust, condemn me to live on!"
Doctor Samuel Ward took snuff again, but all the answer he made was
to waggle his gray mane and stare hard at the face of the other.

"Yes," said he, at length, "I condemn you to fight on, John;" and he
smiled grimly.
"Why, look at you, man!" he broke out fiercely, after a moment. "The
type and picture of combat! Good bone, fine bone and hard; a hard
head and bony; little eye, set deep; strong, wiry muscles, not too
big--fighting muscles, not dough; clean limbs; strong fingers; good
arms, legs, neck; wide chest--"
"Then you give me hope?" Calhoun flashed a smile at him.
"No, sir! If you do your duty, there is no hope for you to live. If you do
not do your duty, there is no hope for you to die, John Calhoun, for
more than two years to come--perhaps five years--six. Keep up this
work--as you must, my friend--and you die as surely as though I shot
you through as you sit there. Now, is this any comfort to you?"
A gray pallor overspread my master's face. That truth is welcome to no
man, morbid or sane, sound or ill; but brave men meet it as this one did.
"Time to do much!" he murmured to himself. "Time to mend many
broken vessels, in those two years. One more fight--yes, let us have it!"
But Calhoun the man was lost once more in Calhoun the visionary, the
fanatic statesman. He summed up, as though to himself, something of
the situation which then existed at Washington.
"Yes, the coast is clearer, now that Webster is out of the cabinet, but
Mr. Upshur's death last month brings in new complications. Had he
remained our secretary of state, much might have been done. It was
only last October he proposed to Texas a treaty of annexation."
"Yes, and found Texas none so eager," frowned Doctor Ward.
"No; and why not? You and I know well enough. Sir Richard
Pakenham, the English plenipotentiary here, could tell if he liked.
England is busy with Texas. Texas owes large funds to England.
England wants Texas as a colony. There is fire under this smoky talk of

Texas dividing into two governments, one, at least, under England's
gentle and unselfish care!
"And now, look you," Calhoun continued, rising, and pacing up and
down, "look what is the evidence. Van Zandt, chargé d'affaires in
Washington for the Republic of Texas, wrote Secretary Upshur only a
month before Upshur's death, and told him to go carefully or he would
drive Mexico to resume the war, and so cost Texas the friendship of
England! Excellent Mr. Van Zandt! I at least know what the friendship
of England means. So, he asks us if we will protect Texas with troops
and ships in case she does sign that agreement of annexation. Cunning
Mr. Van Zandt! He knows what that answer must be to-day, with
England ready to fight us for Texas and Oregon both, and we wholly
unready for war. Cunning Mr. Van Zandt, covert friend of England!
And lucky Mr. Upshur, who was killed, and so never had to make that
answer!"
"But, John, another will have to make it, the one way or the other," said
his friend.
"Yes!" The long hand smote on the table.
"President Tyler has offered you Mr. Upshur's portfolio as secretary of
state?"
"Yes!" The long hand smote again.
Doctor Ward made no comment beyond a long whistle, as he recrossed
his legs. His eyes were fixed on Calhoun's frowning face. "There will
be events!" said he at length, grinning.
"I have not yet accepted," said Calhoun. "If I do, it will be to bring
Texas and Oregon into this Union, one slave, the other free, but both
vast and of a mighty future for us. That done, I resign at once."
"Will you accept?"
Calhoun's answer was first to pick up a paper from his desk. "See, here

is the despatch Mr. Pakenham brought from Lord Aberdeen of the
British ministry to Mr. Upshur just two days before his death. Judge
whether Aberdeen wants liberty--or territory! In effect he reasserts
England's right to interfere in our affairs. We fought one war to
disprove that. England has said enough on this continent. And England
has meddled enough."
Calhoun and Ward looked at each other, sober in their realization of the
grave problems which then beset American statesmanship and
American thought. The old doctor was first to break the silence. "Then
do you accept? Will you serve again, John?"
"Listen to me. If