But he was, in intellect, birth, breeding, and position,
above them all, and they knew it. There, boxed in that little room, they
faced him, and anger, rancor, spite, itch for revenge gave way before
his stern, cold, inexorable determination to prevail in the name of the
right.
"Gentlemen, I haven't called you here for the purpose of arguing or
wrangling. You'll waste time by trying to do either. You are here to
listen to what _must_ be done. You represent the warring factions. There
are enough of us to straighten the matter out. There are not so many
that the secret of this shameful mess cannot be kept, and our party
saved at the polls."
He paused to draw the fateful documents from his pocket.
In the hush of the little room they heard Senator Pownal declaiming:
"And it is upon these firm principles, bedrock of inalienable rights
guaranteed to the people, upon the broad issues of reform, inculcation
of temperance, and the virtues of civic life, that the Republican party
is founded."
Harlan, at the door, younger than the rest, found a suggestion of humor
in what the orator was saying compared with what the party managers had
met to hear.
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