gnation against an Oregonian who would not fight to save
the country unless he could be shown that his own personal interests
were involved. "For one wild moment," wrote King, "I longed to throttle
the wretch and push him into the Columbia. I looked down, however, and
saw that the water was clean."

Think of the force of the following declaration uttered to men who meant
well, but were undecided:

"The Rebellion--it is the cause of Wrong against Right. It is not only
an unjustifiable revolution, but a geographical wrong, a moral wrong,
a religious wrong, a war against the Constitution, against the New
Testament, against God."

Thus did he condemn all forces within the State at war with liberty and
right. Stern words he used,--words that like Luther's were half battles.
Of peace-at-any-price-men he said:

"The hounds on the track of Broderick turned peace men, and affected
with hysterics at the sniff of powder! Wonderful transformation. What
a pleasant sight--a hawk looking so innocent, and preaching peace to
doves, his talons loosely wound with cotton! A clump of wolves trying
to thicken their ravenous flanks with wool, for this occasion only, and
composing their fangs to the work of eating grass! Holy Satan, pray for
us."

When the report reached California that Robert Toombs had said, "I want
it carved over my grave,--'Here lies the man who destroyed the United
States Government and its Capitol,'" King replied, "Mr. Toombs cannot be
literally gratified. But he may come so near his wish as this,--that it
shall be written over his gallows, as over every one of a score of his
fellow-felons, 'Here swings the man who attempted murder on the largest
scale that was ever planned in history.'"

That our orator knew how to be sarcastic as well as severe must have
been plain to those who heard him exclaim:

"There are those who say that they are Union men, and in favor of the
Government, and yet they are bitterly opposed to the administration, and
cannot support its policy. But in a war for self existence, this divorce
is impossible. One might as well say at a fire, while his house is
beginning to crackle in the flames, 'I am in favor of this engine, I
go for this water; the hose meets my endorsement. Certainly, I am for
putting out the fire, but don't ask me to help man the brakes, for I am
conscientiously opposed to the hose pipe. Its nozzle isn't handsome. It
wasn't made by a Democrat.'"

How ardently King longed fo