Josephine St. Auban did not lack decision upon her own part.
Something told her that no danger this time lurked for her.
"Pardon me for just one moment then, Sir," she answered. A few moments later she returned, better prepared for the occasion with just a touch to her toilet; and with a paper or two which with some instinct she hastily s.n.a.t.c.hed up from her desk. These latter she hurriedly crowded into her little reticule. They took the carriage and soon were pa.s.sing through the streets toward the most public portion of the city of Washington.
They entered wide grounds, and drew up before a stately building which lay well back from the street. Entering, they pa.s.sed through a narrow hall, thence into a greater room, fitted with wide panels decorated with many portraits of men great in the history of this country. There was a long table in this room, and about it--some of them not wholly visible in the rather dim light--there were several gentlemen. As her tall escort entered with a word of announcement, all of these rose, grave and silent, and courteously bowed to her. There approached from the head of the room a tall, handsome and urbane gentleman, who came and took her hand. He, some of these others, she could not fail to know. She had come hither without query or comment, and she stood silent and waiting now, but her heart was racing, her color faintly rising in spite of all her efforts to be calm.
[Ill.u.s.tration: They entered wide grounds.]
"My dear lady," he began, in a voice whose low, modulated tones scarce could fail to please any ear, "I thank you for your presence here. Will you not be seated? It is a very great honor that you give us, and all of these gentlemen appreciate it."
Josephine St. Auban curtsied and, remaining silent and wondering, a.s.sumed the seat a.s.signed her, at the right hand of the tall and grave gentleman who had escorted her hither, and who now courteously handed her to her place.
"We meet absolutely without formality, my dear Madam," went on the tall and kindly man who had greeted her. "What goes on here is entirely unofficial and, as I need not say, it is altogether private; as you will remember."
"You will perhaps pardon my diffidence at such a time and place, Sir," she began, at last. "It is difficult for me to understand what small merit, or large error, of mine should bring me here."
"Madam, we wish that your abilities were smaller," smiled the tall gentleman. "That is the very thing of which we wish to speak. It is your activities which have seemed to us matters of concern--indeed, of kindly inquiry, if you do not mind. These gentlemen, I think, I do not need to introduce. We are all of us interested in the peace and dignity of this country."
"Have I done anything against either?" asked she.
"Ah, you have courage to be direct! In answer, I must say that we would like to ask regarding a few things which seem to be within your own knowledge. You, of course, are not unaware of the popular discontent which exists on this or the other side of the great political question in America to-day. We are advised that you yourself have been a traveler in our western districts; and it seemed to us likely that you might be possessed of information regarding matters there of which we get only more interested, more purely partisan, reports."
"That is not impossible," was her guarded reply. "It is true, I have talked with some in that part of the country."
"You were witness of the anxiety of our attempt to keep war and the talk of it far in the background,--our desire to preserve the present state of peace."
"a.s.suredly. But, Sirs, you will forgive me,--I do not believe peace will last. I thought so, until this very day. In my belief, now, there will be war. It can not be averted."
"We are glad to hear the belief of all, on all sides," was the courteous rejoinder. "We ourselves hope the compromise to be more nearly final. Perhaps you as well as others hold to the so-called doctrine of the "higher law"? Perhaps you found your politics in Rousseau"s _Nouvelle Heloise_, rather than in the more sober words of our own Const.i.tution?" His eyes were quizzical, yet not unkind.
"Certain doctrines seem to endure," was her stout answer, kindling.
"I am but a woman, yet I take it that anything that I can say will have no value unless it shall be sincere. To me, this calm is something which can not endure."
"There at least do not lack others who are of that belief. But why?"
"They told me in the West that the South has over three million slaves. They told me that the labor of more than seven million persons, black and white, is controlled by less than a third of a million men; and of all that third of a million, less than eight thousand practically represent the owners of these blacks, who do not vote. Gentlemen, I have been interested in the cause of democracy in Europe--I do not deny it--yet it seems to me an oligarchy and not a democracy which exists in the American South.
The conflict between an oligarchy and a natural democracy is ages old. It does not die. It seems to me that there is the end of all compromise--in the renewed struggle of men, all over the world, to set up an actual government of their own,--not an oligarchy, not a monarchy, not of property and wealth, but of actual democracy. It must come, here, some day."
"It is unusual, my dear lady, to find one of your s.e.x disposed to philosophy so deep and clear as your own. You please us. Will you go on?"
"Sir, your courtesy gives me additional courage,". was her answer.
"You have asked me for my beliefs--and I do not deny that I have some of my own, some I have sought to put in practice. To me, another phase of this question lies in something which the South itself seems not to have remembered. The South figures that the cost of a laboring man, a slave, is perhaps a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars. The South pays the cost of rearing that man. Any nation pays the cost of bringing up a human being. Yet, within this very year, Europe has sent into the North and into the West a third of a million of men _already_ reared, already _paid_ for.
Sir, you ask me what will be the result of this discontent, the result of this compromise. It seems to me plainly written in those two facts--industrial, not political facts. The "finality" of this compromise, its final issue, will be established by conditions with which laws or their enforcement have little to do. Yet statesmen try to solve such a question by politics. I myself at one time thought it could endure--but only if all the blacks were bought, paid for and deported, to make room for those who come at no cost to us. I thought for a time it could be done. I have tried to do it. I have failed. I do not think others will follow in my attempt."
"We have not undervalued, Madam, either the brilliance or the profundity of your own active intellect! What you say is of interest. We already have followed with profound interest your efforts. Your words here justify our concern in meeting you. This is perhaps the first time in our history when a woman has been asked to meet those most concerned in even so informal an a.s.semblage as this, at precisely this place."
There were gravity and dignity in his words. The majesty of a government, the dignity of even the simplest and most democratic form of government, the unified needs, the concentrated wish of many millions expressed in the persons of a few,--these are the things which can not fail to impress even the most ignorant and insensitive as deeply as the most extravagant pageantry of the proudest monarchy. They did not fail to impress Josephine St.
Auban, brilliant and audacious thinker though she was, and used to the pomp of Old World courts. At once she felt almost a sense of fright, of terror. The silence of these other gentlemen, so able to hold their peace, came to her mind with the impress of some mighty power. She half shrank back into her chair.
"Madam, you have no need of fear," broke in the deep voice of the gentleman who had escorted her thither, and who now observed her perturbation. "We shall not harm you--I think not even criticize you seriously. Our wish is wholly for your own good."
"a.s.suredly," resumed the first speaker. "That is the wish of all my friends here. But let us come now to the point. Madam, to be frank with you, you have, as we just have said, been much concerned of late with attempts at the colonization and deportation of negroes from this country. You at least have not hesitated to undertake a work which has daunted the imagination of our ablest minds. Precisely such was once my own plan. My counselors dissuaded me. I lacked your courage."
"There seemed no other way," she broke in hurriedly, her convictions conquering her timidity. "I wanted so much to do something--not alone for these blacks--but something for the good of America, the good of the world. And I failed, to-day."
"The work of the Colonization Society has gone on for many years,"
gently insisted the first speaker, raising a hand, "and made it no serious complications. Your own work has been much bolder, and, to be frank, there _have_ been complications. Oh, we do not criticize you. On the contrary, we have asked your presence here that we might understandingly converse on these things to which you have given so much attention."
"If I have erred," she ventured, "it has been done within the limitations of human wisdom; yet my convictions were absolutely sincere--at least I may a.s.sure you of so much. I have not wished to break any law, to violate convictions on either side. I only wanted to do some good in the world."
"We are quite sure, my dear lady, that the sentiments of your mind are precisely those of our own. But perhaps you may be less aware than ourselves of complications which may rise. Our friend who sits by you has found occasion to write again in unmeasured terms to the representatives of Austria. We are advised of your affiliations with the Hungarian movement--in short, we are perhaps better advised of your movements than you yourself are aware. We know of these blacks which have been purchased and deported by your agents, but we also know that large numbers of slaves have been enticed away from their owners, that whole plantations have been robbed of their labor, and this under the protection--indeed, under the very _name_--of this attempt which you have set on foot. Has this been done by your knowledge, Madam? I antic.i.p.ate your answer.
I am sure that it has not."
"No! No!" she rejoined. "a.s.suredly, no! That is a matter entirely without my knowledge. You shock me unspeakably by this news. I have not heard of it. I should be loath to believe it! I have spent my own funds in this matter, and I have told my own agents to do nothing in the slightest contravention of the laws."
"None the less, these things have been done, my dear lady. They have awakened the greatest feeling in the South--a feeling of animosity which extends even to the free colonies of blacks which have been established. The relations between the two great sections of this country are already strained sufficiently. We deprecate, indeed we fear, anything which may cause a conflict, an outbreak of sectional feeling."
"Gentlemen, you must believe me," she replied, firmly and with dignity, "I have been as ignorant as I am innocent of any such deeds on the part of my agents. While I do not agree that any human being can be the property of another, I will waive that point; and I have given no aid to any undertaking which contemplated taking from any man what he _himself_ considered to be his property, and what the laws of the land accorded him as his property. My undertaking was simply intended as a solution of _all_ those difficulties--for both sides, and justly--"
"Madam, I rejoice to hear those words,--rejoice beyond measure!
They accord entirely with the opinion we have formed of you."
"Then you have watched me!--I have been--"
"This is a simple and democratic country, Madam," was the quiet answer, although perhaps there might have been the trace of a smile on the close-set mouth of the speaker. "We do not spy on any one.
Your acts have been quite within public knowledge. You yourself have not sought to leave them secret. Should these facts surprise you?"
"They almost terrify me. What have I done!"
"There is no need of apprehension on your part. Let us a.s.sure you of that at once. We are glad that you, whom we recognize as the moving spirit in this deportation enterprise, have not sanctioned certain of the acts of your agents. There was one--a former army officer--with whom there labored a revolutionist, a German, recently from Europe. Is it not so?"
"It is true," she a.s.sented. "They were my chief agents. But as for that officer, this country has none more eager to offer his sword to the flag when the time shall come. I am sure it is but his zeal which has caused offense. I would plead for his reinstatement. He may have been indiscreet."
"We shall listen to what you say. But in addition to these, there was a former slave girl, who has been somewhat prominent in meetings which these two have carried on in different parts of the country. In the words of the southern press, this girl has been used as a decoy."
"Lily!" exclaimed Josephine. "It must have been she! Yes, I had such a person in my employ--in very humble capacity. But, Sir, I a.s.sure you I have not seen her for more than two months. I had supposed her busy with these others on the lecture platform."
"She is not now so engaged," interrupted a voice from the shadows on the other side of the table.
"Then she has been arrested?" demanded Josephine.
"That is not the term; yet it is true that she sailed on one of your own colonization ships last week. Her fortune will lie elsewhere hereafter. It was her own wish."
A sudden sense of helplessness smote upon Josephine St. Auban.
Here, even in this republic, were great and silent powers with which the individual needed to contend. Absorbed for the time in that which was nearest her heart, she had forgotten her own fortunes. Now she suddenly half rose for the first time.
"But, gentlemen," said she, as she held out in her hand some papers which crackled in her trembling grasp,--"after all, we are at cross purposes. This is not necessary. My own work is at an end, already! This very morning it came to an end, and for ever. Will you not look at these?"