"When it
comes to wheedling, age is no such bar. I call to mind one man who
could side with Old Hickory in the case of Mrs. Peggy Eaton. I
mean him whom we call the Old Fox of the North."
"He was a widower, even then, and hence immune," smiled the man
across the table. "Now he is many years older."
"Yet, none the less a widower, and all the more an adjuster of nice
matters. He has proven himself a politician. It was his accident
and not his fault not to remain with us in our party! Yet I happen
to know that though once defeated for the presidency and twice for
the nomination, he remains true to his Free Soil beliefs. It has
just occurred to me, since our friend from Kentucky mentions it,
that could we by some fair means, some legal means--some means of
adjustment and compromise, if you please, gentlemen,--place this
young lady under the personal care of this able exponent of the
_suaviter in modo_, and induce him to conduct her, preferably to
some unknown point beyond the Atlantic Ocean, there to lose her
permanently, we should perhaps be doing our country a service, and
would also be relieving this administration of one of its gravest
concerns.
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