e executive
as well, have agreed to put this dog to sleep when possible, and
when found sleeping, to let him lie. My dear friend, it is not a
question of principle, but of policy, to-day."

"Principles should rule policies!" exclaimed the other virtuously.

"Agreed! Agreed! We are perfectly at one as to that. But you know
that Webster himself reiterates again and again that no man should
set up his conscience above the law of his country. Your Free Soil
party means not law, but anarchy,--and worse than that--it means
disunion! Clay, Cass, Webster, Benton, even the hottest of the men
from Mississippi and South Carolina, are agreed on that. My dear
Sir, I say it with solemn conviction, the formation of a new party
of discontent to-day, when everything is already strained to
breaking, will split this country and plunge the divided sections
into a bloody war!"

The other sat gravely for a time before he made reply. "Our people
feel too sternly to be reconciled. We need some new party--"

Again the other raised a warning hand. "_Do not say that word_!
Others have principles as much as you and I. Let us not speak with
recklessness of consequences. But, privately, and without hot
argument, my dear friend, the singular thing to me is that you, an
old leader of the people, with a wide following in the North and
South, should now be entertaining precisely the same principles--
though not expressing them with the same reckless fervor--which are
advanced by the latest and most dangerous abolitionist of the time."

"You do not mean Mr. Garrison? Any of my New York or Boston
friends?"

"No, I mean a _woman_, here in Washington. You could perhaps guess
her name."

The other drew his chair closer. "I presume you mean the lady
reputed to have been connected with President Taylor's commission,
of inquiry into affairs in Hungary--"

"Yes,--the 'most beautiful woman in Washington to-day.' So she is
called by some--'the most dangerous,' by others."

"Has Kentucky forgotten its gallantry so fully as that? Rumor has
reported the young woman to me as a charming young widow, of
beauty, wealth and breeding."

"Yes, manners, and convictions, and courage--abolitionist
tendencies and fighting proclivities. She is a firebrand--a
revolutionist, fresh back from the Old World, and armed with
weapons of whose use we old fogies are utterly ignorant. Having
apparently nothing to lose whose loss she dreads, she is careless