be? So many forces would operate. There
is much jealousy and ambition in him. He can never lead my party. Is he
capable of deserting that he might lead another? One expects that sort
of thing of a Burr; but Madison--I have thought him of an almost
dazzling whiteness at times--then I have had lightning glimpses of
meaner depths. He is easily influenced. Virginia opposes me so bitterly!
Will he dare to continue to defy her? Can he continue to rise if she
combines against him? Oh, God! If he only had more iron in his soul!"

It was characteristic of him that he had forgotten his audience. He was
thinking aloud, his thought leaping from point to point as they sprang
into the brilliant atmosphere of his mind; or using its rapid divining
rod. He threw back his head. "I'll not believe it till I have proof!" he
exclaimed defiantly. "Why, I should feel as if one of the foundations of
the earth had given way. Madison--we have been like brothers. I have
confided deeply in him. There is little in that Report of yesterday that
I have not discussed with him a hundred times--nothing but the ways and
means, which I dared confide to no one. He has always been in favour of
assumption, of paying the whole debt. It is understood that he is to
support me in Congress. I'll hear no more. Dry your tears. You have
accomplished your object with a woman's wit. I believe you did but shed
those tears to enhance your loveliness, my Lady Godiva."

XIX

The immediate consequences of Hamilton's Report were a rise of fifty per
cent in the securities of the bankrupt Confederation, and a bitter
warfare in Congress. All were agreed upon the propriety of paying the
foreign loan, but the battle raged about every other point in turn. One
of the legacies of the old Congress was the principle of repudiating
what it was not convenient to redeem, and the politicians of the country
had insensibly fallen into the habit of assuming that they should start
clear with the new government, and relegate the domestic debt to the
limbo which held so many other resources best forgotten. They were far
from admitting the full measure of their inheritance, however, and
opened the battle with a loud denouncement of the greedy speculator who
had defrauded the impoverished soldier, to whose needs they had been
indifferent hitherto. Most of this feeling concentrated in the
opposition, but many Federalists were so divided upon the question of
discrimination that for a time the o