The Magnificent Adventure Part 8

His eye did not waver as it looked into the other's, but blazed with all the fire of his own soul. "Across the Alleghanies, along the great river, there is a land waiting, ready for strong men. Are we such men, gentlemen? And can we talk freely as such among ourselves?"

Their conversation, carried on in ordinary tones, had not been marked by any. Their brows, drawn sharp in sudden resolution, their glance each to the other, made their ratification of this extraordinary speech.

They had no time for anything further at the moment. A sound came to their ears, and they turned toward the head of the long table, where the tall figure of the President of the United States was rising in his place. The dinner had drawn toward its close.

Mr. Jefferson now stood, gravely regarding those before him, his keen eye losing no detail of the strange scene. He knew the place of every man and woman at that board--perhaps this was his own revenge for a reception he once had had at London. But at last he spoke.

"I have news for you all, my friends, today; news which applies not to one man nor to one woman of this or any country more than to another, but news which belongs to all the world."

He paused for a moment, and held up in his right hand a tiny sc.r.a.p of paper, thin, crumpled. None could guess what significance it had.

"May G.o.d in His own power punish me," said he, solemnly, "if ever I halt or falter in what I believe to be my duty! I place no bounds to the future of this republic--based, as I firmly believe it to be, upon the enduring principle of the just and even rights of mankind.

"Our country to the West always has inspired me with the extremest curiosity, and animated me with the loftiest hopes. Since the year 1683 that great river, the Missouri, emptying into the Mississippi, has been looked upon as the way to the Pacific Ocean. One hundred years from that time--that is to say, in 1783--I myself asked one of the ablest of our Westerners, none other than General George Rogers Clark, to undertake a journey of exploration up that Western river. It was not done. Three years later, when accredited to the court at Paris, I met a Mr. Ledyard, an American then abroad. I desired him to cross Russia, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean, and then to journey eastward over the Stony Mountains, to find, if he could, the head of that Missouri River of which we know so little. But Ledyard failed, for reasons best known, perhaps, to the monarch of Russia.

"Later than that, and long before I had the power which now is mine to order matters of the sort, the Boston sailor, Captain Grey, in 1792, as you know, found the mouth of the Columbia River. The very next year after that I engaged the scientist Michaux to explore in that direction; but he likewise failed.

"All my life I have seen what great opportunities would be ours if once we owned that vast country yonder. As a private citizen I planned that we should at least explore it--always it was my dream to know more of it. It being clear to me that the future of our republic lay not to the east, but to the west of the Alleghanies--indeed, to the west of the Mississippi itself--never have I relinquished the ambition that I have so long entertained. Never have I forgotten the dream which animated me even in my younger years. I am here now to announce to you, so that you may announce to all the world, certain news which I have here regarding that Western region, which never was ours, but which I always wished might be ours."

With the middle finger of his left hand the President flicked at the mysterious bit of crumpled paper still held aloft in his right. There was silence all down the long table.

"More than a year ago I once more chose a messenger into that country," went on Thomas Jefferson. "I chose a leader of exploration, of discovery. I chose him because I knew I could trust in his loyalty, in his judgment, in his courage. Well and thoroughly he has fitted himself for that leaders.h.i.+p."

He turned his gaze contemplatively down the long table. The gaze of many of his guests followed his, still wonderingly, as he went on.

"My leader for this expedition into the West, which I planned more than a year ago, is here with you now. Captain Meriwether Lewis, will you stand up for a moment? I wish to present you to these, my friends."

With wonder, doubt, and, indeed, a certain perturbation at the President's unexpected summons, the young Virginian rose to his feet and stood gazing questioningly at his chief.

"I know your modesty as well as your courage, Captain Lewis," smiled Mr. Jefferson. "You may be seated, sir, since now we all know you.

"Let me say to you others that I have had opportunity of knowing my captain of this magnificent adventure. In years he is not yet thirty, but he is and always was a leader, mature, wise, calm, and resolved.

Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities can divert from its direction; careful as a father of those committed to his charge, and yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life; guarded by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his own country against duplication of objects already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal; of sound understanding, and of a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he shall report will be as certain as if seen by ourselves--with all these qualifications, I say, as if selected and implanted by nature in one body, for one purpose, I could have no hesitation in confiding this enterprise--the most cherished enterprise of my administration--to him whom now you have seen here before you."

The President bowed deeply to the young man, who had modestly resumed his place. Then, for just a moment, Mr. Jefferson stood silent, absorbed, rapt, carried away by his own vision.

"And now for my news," he said at length. "Here you have it!"

He waved once more the little sc.r.a.p of paper.

"I had this news from New York this morning. It was despatched yesterday evening. Tomorrow it will reach all the world. The mails will bring it to you; but news like this could not wait for the mails.

No horse could bring it fast enough. It was brought by a dove--the dove of peace, I trust. Let me explain briefly; what my news concerns.

"As you know, that new country yonder belonged at first to any one who might find it--to England, if she could penetrate it first; to Spain, if she were first to put her flag upon it; to Russia, if first she conquered it from the far Northwest. But none of these three ever completed acquisition by those means under which nations take t.i.tle to the new territories of the world. Louisiana, as we term it, has been unclaimed, unknown, unowned--indeed, virgin territory so far as definite t.i.tle was concerned.

"In the north, such t.i.tle as might be was conveyed to Great Britain by France after the latter power was conquered at Quebec. The lower regions France--supposing that she owned them--conveyed, through her monarch, the fifteenth Louis, to Spain. Again, in the policy of nations, Spain sold them to France once more, in a time of need.

France owned the territory then, or had the t.i.tle, though Spain still was in possession. It lay still unoccupied, still contested--until but now.

"My friends, I give you news! On the 2d of May last, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, sold to this republic, the United States of America, all of Louisiana, whatever it may be, from the Mississippi to the Pacific! Here are seven words which carry an empire with them--the empire of humanity--a land in which democracy, humanity, shall expand and grow forever! This is my news:

"General Bonaparte signed May 2--Fifteen millions--Rejoice!"

A deep sigh rose as if in unison all along the table. The event was too large for instant grasping. There was no applause at first.

Some--many--did not understand. Not so certain others.

The minister from Great Britain, the minister from Spain, Aaron Burr and a few other men acquainted with great affairs, prominent in public life, turned and looked at the President's tall figure at the head of the table, and then at that of the silent young man whom Mr.

Jefferson had publicly honored.

The face of Aaron Burr grew pale. The faces of the foreign ministers showed sudden consternation. Theodosia Alston turned, her own eyes fixed upon the grave face of the young man sitting at her side, who made no sign of the strong emotion possessing his soul.

"I have given you my news," the voice of Mr. Jefferson went on, rising now, vibrant and masterful, fearless, compelling. "There you have it, this little message, large as any ever written in the world. The t.i.tle to that Western land has pa.s.sed to us. We set our seal on it now! Cost what it may, we shall hold it so long as we can claim a flag or a country on this continent. The price is nothing. Fifteen millions means no more than the wine or water left in a half-empty gla.s.s. It might be fifty times fifteen millions, and yet not be one fiftieth enough. These things are not to be measured by known signs or marks of values. It is not in human comprehension to know what we have gained.

Hence we have no human right to boast. The hand of Almighty G.o.d is in this affair! It was He who guided the fingers of those who signed this cession to the United States of America!

"My friends, now I am content. What remains is but detail. Our duty is plain. Between us and this purpose, I shall hold all intervention of whatever nature, friendly or hostile, as no more than details to be ignored. Yonder lies and has always lain the scene of my own ambition.

Always I have hungered to know that vast new land beyond all maps, as yet ignorant of human metes and bounds. Always I have coveted it for this republic, knowing that without room for expansion we must fail, that with it we shall triumph to the edge of our ultimate dream of human destiny--triumph and flourish while governments shall remain known among men.

"I offer that faith to the eyes of the world today and of all the days to come, believing in every humility that G.o.d guided the hands of those who signed this t.i.tle deed of a great empire, and that G.o.d long ago implanted in my unworthy bosom the strong belief that one day this might be which now has come to pa.s.s. It is no time for boasting, no time for any man to claim glory or credit for himself. We are in the face of events so vast that their margins leave our vision. We cannot see to the end of all this, cannot read all the purpose of it, because we are but men.

"Gentlemen, you Americans, men of heart, of courage! You also, ladies, who care most for gentlemen of heart and courage, whose pulses beat even with our own to the stimulus of our deeds! I say to you all that I would gladly lay aside my office and its honors--I would lay aside all my other ambitions, all my desires to be remembered as a man who at least endeavored to think and to act--if thereby I might lead this expedition of our volunteers for the discovery of the West. That may not be. These slackened sinews, these shrinking limbs, these fading eyes, do not suffice for such a task. It is in my heart, yes; but the heart for this magnificent adventure needs stronger pulses than my own.

"My heart--did I say that I had need of another, a better? Did I say that I had need of eyes and brains, of thews and sinews, of calm nerves and steady blood? Did I say I had need of courage and resolution--all these things combined? I have them! That Providence who has given us all needful instruments and agents to this point in our career as a republic has given us yet another, and the last one needful. Tomorrow my friend, my special messenger, Captain Meriwether Lewis, starts with his expedition. He will explore the country between the Missouri and the Pacific--the country of my dream and his. It is no longer the country of any other power--it is our own!

"Gentlemen, I give you a toast--Captain Meriwether Lewis!"

CHAPTER VI

THE GREAT CONSPIRACY

The simplicity dinner was at an end. Released by the President's withdrawal, the crowd--it could be called little else--broke from the table. The anteroom filled with struggling guests, excited, gesticulating, exclaiming.

Meriwether Lewis, anxious only to escape from his social duties that he might rejoin his chief, felt a soft hand on his arm, and turned.

Theodosia Alston was looking up at him.

"Do you forget your friends so soon? I must add my good wishes. It was splendid, what Mr. Jefferson said--and it was true!"

"I wish it might be true," said the young man. "I wish I might be worthy of such a man."

"You are worthy of us all," returned Theodosia.

"People are kind to the condemned," said he sententiously.

At the door they were once more close to the others of the diplomatic party who had sat in company at table. The usual crush of those clamoring for their carriages had begun.

"My dear," said Mr. Merry to his irate spouse, "I shall, if Mrs.

Alston will permit, ask you to take her up in your carriage with you to her home. I am to go with Mr Burr."