Read The Victim: A Romance of the Real Jefferson Davis Page 15
XII
TRUTH
They nursed him slowly back into life again, the loving heart of theolder brother guiding the arm of his faithful slave.
He refused to live at first.
"It's no use, Joe," he cried with bitter despair. "Life isn't worth thestruggle any more. I'm tired, I just want to rest--by her side--that'sall."
"I know, Boy, how you feel. But you must live. Duty calls. Great eventsare stirring the world. You've a man's part to play--"
"I won't play it. I'm done with ambition. I'm done with strife. Thegame's not worth the candle. I've lived the only life worth living, andit's finished."
Little by little, each day, the brother slowly rebuilt in the strickensoul the will to live. Before he was able to walk, he lifted the frailform in his arms, carried him into his big library, and seated him in anarm-chair before a fire of glowing logs.
With a sweep of his arm about the room toward the crowded shelves hebegan in earnest tones:
"You're going to live with me now, Boy. We love each other with the loveof strong men. I need your help and companionship in my study. You hadthe advantage of a college career--I didn't. We'll master here theserecords of the world's life. We'll seek wisdom in the history andexperience of man. What do you know of the treasures buried in those bigvolumes? Our young men go to school and plunge into life with a meresmattering. Do you know the history of your own country, how it wasdiscovered, how its colonies grew, how its battles were fought againstoverwhelming and impossible odds? How its great Constitution grew in thehands of inspired leaders, who builded better than they knew a chart forthe guidance of man. Do you know the history of the mind of man? Do youknow the story of those ragged bleeding feet--of the great thinkers ofthe ages who have found the path of truth through blood and tears andthen walked its way to the stake, to the block and the gallows? Comewith me into the big world of the past--read, study, think, and girdyourself with power! We're just entering on the struggle that means lifeor death to our Republic. I believe as I believe in God, that we haveset a beacon light on the shores of the world that will guide the humanrace to its mightiest achievements--unless we fail to keep its lanterntrimmed and bright.
"The poison of indolence is in our blood--the tendency to centralizedtyranny. We are but a few years removed from its curse. As we grow inyears, the temptation to make Washington the gilded Capital of an Empirebecomes more and more apparent. Unless we control this tendency to lapseinto the past, we are lost and the story of our fallen Republic will bebut one more added to the failures of history. Unless we can preservethe sovereignty of our States, the Union will become an Empire, not aRepublic of republics. It's a difficult thing for men to governthemselves, though they can do it better than anyone else has ever doneit for them. We are making this wonderful experiment here in the newworld. The fate of unborn millions hangs on its success. You're donewith self and self-seeking. Ambition is a dream that is passed. Good!Lay your life in unselfish sacrifice on the altar of your country. Onlythe man who has given up ambition is fit for great leadership. He alonedares to seek and know and speak the Truth!"
The tired spirit rose with a new view of human life, its aim andpurpose. For eight years he buried himself in the library on hisbrother's estate. Through the long winter nights the two brilliant mindsfought over in friendly contests the battles of the ages until thepassion for Truth grew into the one purpose of a great soul.
When the first rumblings of the storm that was to shake a continentbroke over the Republic, he stepped forth to take his place in the worldof action--the best equipped, most thoroughly trained, most perfectlypoised man who had ever entered the arena of American politics.
His rise was brilliant and unprecedented. In his first contest he metthe foremost orator of the age, Sergeant Prentiss, and vanquished him onhis own ground. In two years he took his seat in Congress, the favoriteson of Mississippi.
He had scarcely begun his career, as a lawmaker, when war was declaredagainst Mexico. He resigned his high office, raised a regiment and oncemore found himself a soldier under the orders of stern old ZacharyTaylor.
On his first battle field at the head of his Mississippi regiment, heplanted the flag of the Republic on the Grand Plaza of Monterey. And inthe supreme crisis of the battle of Buena Vista, with the bloodstreaming from his wounds, he led his men in a charge againstoverwhelming odds, turned the tide from defeat to victory and gave thePresidency to the man who had denied to him his daughter's hand.
He hobbled back on crutches to his brother's home in Mississippi amidthe shouts and frenzied acclaim of a proud and grateful people. Withinthree years from the day he entered public life, he took his seat in theSenate Chamber of the United States beside Clay, Calhoun and Webster,the peer of any man within its walls, and with the conscious power ofKnowledge and Truth, girded himself for the coming struggle of giants.