I've got it)--_Inter arma silent
leges_."

I am afraid that Horace Harrison, when he got that letter, suspected that
I had been acting as counsel for both sides. However, as I took no fee,
my conscience was at rest. I think that I was of great use to General
Whipple at that time, and, as he said one day, an unofficial secretary.
Great and serious matters passed through our hands (for the General and
Harrison were taking the lead in virtually reforming the whole frontier
or debatable land), and these grand affairs were often hurried through
"like hot cakes." My slender legal attainments were several times in
requisition on occasions when the head of the Supreme Court would have
been a more appropriate referee. I discovered, however, that there was
really a department of law in which I might have done good work.
Questions of very serious importance were often discussed and disposed of
among us three with very great economy of time and trouble. And here I
may say--"excuse the idle word"--that I wonder that I never in all my
life fell into even the most trifling diplomatic or civil position, when,
in the opinion of certain eminent friends, I possess several
qualifications for such a calling--that is, quickness in mastering the
legal bearings of a question, a knowledge of languages and countries,
readiness in drawing up papers, and an insatiable love of labour, which
latter I have not found to be _always_ possessed by the accomplished
gentlemen whom our country employs abroad.

I may here narrate a curious incident which touched and gratified me.
When all the slaves in Nashville were set free by the entrance of our
troops, the poor souls, to manifest their joy, seized a church (nobody
opposing), and for three weeks held heavy worship for twenty-four hours
per diem. _But not a white soul was allowed to enter_--the real and
deeply-concealed reason being that Voodoo rites (which gained great
headway during the war) formed a part of their devotion. However, I was
informed that an exception would be made in my case, and that I was free
to enter. And why? Had Jim surmised, by that marvellous intuition of
character which blacks possess, that I had in me "the mystery"? Now, to-
day I hold and possess the black stone of the Voodoo, the possession of
which of itself makes me a grand-master and initiate or adept, and such
an invitation would seem as natural as one to a five-o'clock tea
elsewhere; but I was not known to a