25 chapters
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25 chapters
CHAPTER I—FROM THEOLOGY TO LAW
CHAPTER I—FROM THEOLOGY TO LAW
T HE Right Reverend Doctor Bellamy is a personage of churchly consequence in Bethlehem. Indeed, the doctor is a personage of churchly consequence throughout all Connecticut. For he took his theology from that well-head of divinity and metaphysics, Jonathan Edwards himself, and possesses an immense library of five hundred volumes, mostly on religion. Also, he is the author of “True Religion Delineated”; which work shines out across the tumbling seas of New England Congregationalism like a lightho
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CHAPTER II—THE GENTLEMAN VOLUNTEER
CHAPTER II—THE GENTLEMAN VOLUNTEER
Y OUNG Aaron establishes himself in Litchfield with his pretty sister Sally, who, because he is brilliant and handsome, is proud of him. Also, Tappan Reeve, her husband, takes to him in a slow, bookish way, and is much held by his trenchant powers of mind. Young Aaron assumes the law, and makes little flights into Bracton’s “Fleeta,” and reads Hawkins and Hobart, delighting in them for their limpid English. More seriously, yet more privately, he buries himself in every volume of military lore up
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CHAPTER III—COLONEL BENEDICT ARNOLD EXPLAINS
CHAPTER III—COLONEL BENEDICT ARNOLD EXPLAINS
I T is September, brilliant and golden. Newburyport is brave with warlike excitement. Drums roll, fifes shriek, armed men fill the single village street. These latter are not seasoned troops, as one may see by their careless array and the want of uniformity in their homespun, homemade garbs. No two are armed alike, for each has brought his own weapon. These are rifles—long, eight-square flintlocks. Also every rifleman wears a powderhorn and bullet pouch of buckskin, while most of them carry kniv
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CHAPTER IV—THE YOUNG FRENCH PRIEST
CHAPTER IV—THE YOUNG FRENCH PRIEST
T HERE are many deserted log huts along the St. Lawrence. Colonel Arnold has taken up his quarters in one of these. It is eight o’clock of the morning following the talk with young Aaron when the sentinel at the door reports that a priest is asking admission. “What have I to do with priests!” demands Colonel Arnold. “However, bring him in! He must give good reasons for disturbing me, or his black coat will do him little good.” The priest is clothed from head to heel in the black frock of his ord
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CHAPTER V—THE WRATH OF WASHINGTON
CHAPTER V—THE WRATH OF WASHINGTON
T HE gray morning finds the routed ones in their old camp by the St. Lawrence. Colonel Arnold’s assault has also failed. The ex-apothecary received a slight wound, and is vastly proud. It is his left arm that was hurt, and of it he makes a mighty parade, slinging it in a rich crimson sash. Colonel Arnold, now in command, does not attempt another assault, but contents himself with maneuvering his slender forces on the plain in tantalizing view of the redcoat foe. He sends a flag of truce to the f
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CHAPTER VI—POOR PEGGY MONCRIEFFE
CHAPTER VI—POOR PEGGY MONCRIEFFE
O N that day when the farmers of Concord turn their rifles upon King George, there dwells in Elizabeth a certain English Major Moncrieffe. With him is his daughter, just ceasing to be a girl and beginning to be a woman. Peggy Moncrieffe is a beauty, and, to tell a whole truth, confident thereof to the verge of brazen. When her father is ordered to his regiment he leaves her behind. The war to him is no more than a riot; he looks to be back in Elizabeth before the month expires. The optimistic Ma
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CHAPTER VII—THE CONQUERING THEODOSIA
CHAPTER VII—THE CONQUERING THEODOSIA
W HILE young Aaron, in his camp by the Ramapo, is wringing the withers of his men with merciless drills, sixteen miles away, in the outskirts of the village of Paranius dwells Madam Theodosia Prévost. Madam Prévost is the widow of an English Colonel Prévost, who was swept up by yellow fever in Jamaica. With her are her mother, her sister, her two little boys. The family name is De Visme, which is a Swiss name from the French cantons. The hungry English in New York are running short of food. Two
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CHAPTER VIII—MARRIAGE AND THE LAW
CHAPTER VIII—MARRIAGE AND THE LAW
Y OUNG Aaron, with his regiment, is ordered to West Point. Next he is dispatched to hold the Westchester lines, being that debatable ground lying between the Americans at White Plains and the English at Kingsbridge. It is still his half-formed purpose to resign his sword, and turn the back of his ambition on every hope of military glory. He says as much to General Putnam, whose real liking for him he feels and trusts. The wise old wolf killer argues in favor of patience. “Washington is but tryin
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CHAPTER IX—SON-IN-LAW HAMILTON
CHAPTER IX—SON-IN-LAW HAMILTON
N OW when young Aaron, in the throbbing metropolis of New York, finds himself a lawyer and a married man, with an office by the Bowling Green and a house in fashionable Maiden Lane, he gives himself up to a cool survey of his surroundings. What he sees is fairly and honestly set forth by the good Dr. Bellamy, after that dominie returns to Bethlehem and Madam Bellamy. The latter, like all true women, is curious, and gives the doctor no peace until he relates his experiences. “The city,” observes
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CHAPTER X—THAT SEAT IN THE SENATE
CHAPTER X—THAT SEAT IN THE SENATE
W HILE Aaron, frostily contemptuous, but with manners as superfine as his ruffles, is saying those knife-thrust things to son-in-law Hamilton, that latter young gentleman’s face is a study in black and red. His expression is a composite of rage colored of fear. The defiance of Aaron is so full, so frank, that it seems studied. Son-in-law Hamilton is not sure of its purpose, or what intrigue it may hide. Deeply impressed as to his own importance, the thought takes hold on him that Aaron’s attack
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CHAPTER XI—THE STATESMAN FROM NEW YORK
CHAPTER XI—THE STATESMAN FROM NEW YORK
T HE shop of government has been moved to Philadelphia. In the brief space between the overthrow of the rusty Schuyler by Aaron, and the latter taking his seat, the great ones talk of nothing but that overthrow. Washington vaguely and Jefferson clearly read in the victory of Aaron the beginning of a new order. It is extravagantly an hour of classes and masses; and the most dull does not fail to make out in the Senate unseating of the rusty but aristocratic Schuyler a triumphant clutch at power b
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CHAPTER XII—IDLENESS AND BLACK RESOLVES
CHAPTER XII—IDLENESS AND BLACK RESOLVES
A ARON finds a Senate existence inexpressibly dull. He writes his Theodosia: “There is nothing to do here. Everybody is idle; and, so far as I see, the one occupation of a senator is to lie sunning himself in his own effulgence. My colleague, Rufus King, and others I might name, succeed in that way in passing their days very pleasantly. For myself, not having their sublime imagination, and being perhaps better acquainted with my own measure, I find this sitting in the sunshine of self a failure.
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CHAPTER XIII—THE GRINDING OF AARON’S MILL
CHAPTER XIII—THE GRINDING OF AARON’S MILL
A ARON tells his friends that he will not go back to the Senate. He puts this resolution to retire on the double grounds of young Theodosia’s loneliness and a consequent paternal necessity of his presence at Richmond Hill, and the tangled condition of his business; which last after the death of Theodosia mère falls into a snarl. Never, by the lifting of an eyelash or the twitching of a lip, does he betray any corner of his political designs, or of his determination to destroy Hamilton. His heart
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CHAPTER XIV—THE TRIUMPH OF AARON
CHAPTER XIV—THE TRIUMPH OF AARON
I T is the era of bad feeling, and the breasts of men are reservoirs of poison. Jefferson and Adams, while known admitted rivals, deplore these wormwood conditions and strive against them. It is as though they strove against the tides; party lines were never more fiercely drawn. Some portrait of the hour may be found in the following: Adams gives a dinner; and, because he cannot get over the Jonathan Edwards emanation of Aaron, he invites him. Also, Van Ness being with Aaron, the invitation incl
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CHAPTER XV—THE INTRIGUE OF THE TIE
CHAPTER XV—THE INTRIGUE OF THE TIE
H AMILTON writhes and twists like a hurt snake. Helpless in that first effort before the adamantine honesty of Jay, when the breath of his courage returns, he bends himself to consider, whether by other means, fair or foul, the election may not yet be stolen for Pinckney. He sends out a flock of letters to the Federal leaders, whom he addresses loftily as their commander in chief of party. It is now he receives a fresh stab. By their replies, and rather in the cool tone than in the substance, th
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CHAPTER XVI—THE SWEETNESS OF REVENGE
CHAPTER XVI—THE SWEETNESS OF REVENGE
W HILE Aaron flourishes with Senate gavel, and Hamilton mourns his downfall at the Grange, new men are springing up and new lines forming. The Federalists disappear in the presidential going down of the wooden Adams; Aaron, by that one crushing victory, annihilated them. The new alignment in New York is personal rather than political, and becomes the merest separation of Aaron’s friends from Aaron’s enemies. At the head of the latter, De Witt Clinton, nephew to old North-of-Ireland Clinton, take
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CHAPTER XVII—AARON I, EMPEROR OF MEXICO
CHAPTER XVII—AARON I, EMPEROR OF MEXICO
A ARON sits placidly serene at Richmond Hill. Over his wine and his cigar, he reduces those dreams of empire to ink and paper. He maps out his design as architects draw plans and specifications for a house. His friends call—Van Ness, the stubborn Swart-wout, the Irvings, Peter and Washington. Outside the serene four walls of Richmond Hill there goes up a prodigious hubbub of mourning—demonstrative if not deeply sincere. Hamilton, broken as a pillar of politics, was still a pillar of fashion. Was
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CHAPTER XVIII—THE TREASON OF WILKINSON
CHAPTER XVIII—THE TREASON OF WILKINSON
N OW begin days crowded on new faces and new scenes. Aaron ascends the Potomac, and crosses the mountains to Pittsburg. He buys a cabined flatboat and floats down to Marietta. They tell him of Blennerhassett, romantic, eccentric, living on an island below. He visits the island; the lord of the isle is absent, but his spouse, broad, thick, genial, not beautiful, welcomes him and bids him come again. Aaron goes to Cincinnati, and confers with Senator Smith; to Louisville, where he meets General Ad
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CHAPTER XIX—HOW AARON IS INDICTED
CHAPTER XIX—HOW AARON IS INDICTED
I T is evening at the White House. The few dinner guests have departed, and Jefferson is alone in his study. As he stands at the open window, and gazes out across the sweep of lawn to the Potomac, shining like silver in the rays of the full May moon, his face is cloudy and angry. The face of the sage of Monticello has put aside its usual expression of philosophy. In place of the calm that should reign there, the look which prevails is one of narrowness, prejudice and wrathful passion. Apparently
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CHAPTER XX—HOW AARON IS FOUND INNOCENT
CHAPTER XX—HOW AARON IS FOUND INNOCENT
T HE indictments are read, and Aaron pleads “Not guilty!” Thereupon Luther Martin moves for a subpoena duces tecum against Jefferson, commanding him to bring into court those written orders from the files of the War Department, which he, as President and ex officio commander in chief of the army, issued to the red-nosed Wilkinson. Arguing the motion, the violent Martin proceeds in these words: “We intend to show that these orders were contrary to the Constitution and the laws. We intend to show
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CHAPTER XXI—THE SAILING AWAY OF AARON.
CHAPTER XXI—THE SAILING AWAY OF AARON.
S IX months creep by; May is painting Manhattan with its flowers. The house of the stubborn, loyal Swartwout is in Stone Street. Long ago, in the old Dutch beaver-peltry days, the home of the poet Steen-dam was there. Now it is the dwelling place of John Swartwout, and Aaron is his guest. The lustrous Theo is with Aaron this sunny afternoon, luster something dimmed; for the hour is one sad and tearful with parting. It is a last parting; though the pair—the loving father! the adoring, clinging da
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CHAPTER XXII—HOW AARON RETURNS HOME
CHAPTER XXII—HOW AARON RETURNS HOME
T HE belated passports arrive, and Aaron journeys to Paris. It is now with him as it was with the unfortunate gentleman, celebrated in Scripture, who went down into a certain city only to fall among thieves. Fouché orders his police to dog him. The post office is given instructions; his letters are stolen—those he writes as well as those he should receive. What is at the bottom of all this French scoundrelism? Madison the weak is president in Washington. That is to say, he is called “president,”
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CHAPTER XXIII—GRIEF COMES KNOCKING
CHAPTER XXIII—GRIEF COMES KNOCKING
B USINESS rushes in upon Aaron; its volume overwhelms him. “This is too much,” says he, “for a gentleman whose years have reached the middle fifties,” and he takes unto himself a partner. Later he takes another partner; the work of the firm overflows into a quartette of rooms and keeps busy a dozen clerks. “Why labor so hard?” asks the stubborn Swartwout. “Your income is the largest at the bar. You have no such need of money.” “Ay! but my creditors have!” “Your creditors? Who are they?” “Every s
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CHAPTER XXIV—THE DOWNFALL OF KING CAUCUS
CHAPTER XXIV—THE DOWNFALL OF KING CAUCUS
M arionette madison is withdrawn from the White House boards at the close of his second term. Jefferson, working the machinery from Monticello, replaces him with Marionette Monroe. It is now Aaron begins his war on the system of Congressional nomination—a system which has obtained since the days of Washington. He writes to Alston: “ Our Virginia junta, beginning with Washington, owning Adams, and controlled by Jefferson, having had possession of the Government for twenty-four years, consider the
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CHAPTER XXV—THE SERENE LAST DAYS
CHAPTER XXV—THE SERENE LAST DAYS
A ARON goes forward with his business—his cases in court, his conferences with clients. Accurate as an Alvan-ley in dress, slim, light, with the quick step of a boy, no one might guess his years. The bar respects him; his friends crowd about him; his enemies shrink away from the black, unblinking stare of those changeless ophidian eyes. And so with his books and his wine and his pipe he sits through the serene evenings in his rooms by the Bowling Green. He is a lion, and strangers from England a
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