``Gentlemen,'' said he, ``Louisville has as her guest of honor to-night a man of whom Kentucky may well be proud [loud cheering].Five years ago he favored Lexington by making it his home, and he came to us with the laurel of former achievements still clinging to his brow.He fought and suffered for his country, and attained the honorable rank of Major in the Continental line.He was chosen by the people of Pennsylvania to represent them in the august body of their legislature, and now he has got new honor in a new field [renewed cheering].
He has come to Kentucky to show her the way to prosperity and glory.Kentucky had a grievance [loud cries of ``Yes, yes!''].Her hogs and cattle had no market, her tobacco and agricultural products of all kinds were rotting because the Spaniards had closed the Mississippi to our traffic.Could the Federal government open the river? [shouts of ``No, no!'' and hisses].Who opened it?
[cries of ``Wilkinson, Wilkinson!''].He said to the Kentucky planters, `Give your tobacco to me, and I will sell it.' He put it in barges, he floated down the river, and, as became a man of such distinction, he was met by Governor-general Miro on the levee at New Orleans.Where is that tobacco now, gentlemen?'' Colonel Clark was here interrupted by such roars and stamping that he paused a moment, and during this interval Mr.Wharton leaned over and whispered quietly in my ear:--``Ay, where is it?''
I stared at Mr.Wharton blankly.He was a man nearing the middle age, with a lacing of red in his cheeks, a pleasant gray eye, and a singularly quiet manner.
``Thanks to the genius of General Wilkinson,'' Colonel Clark continued, waving his hand towards the smilingly placid hero, ``that tobacco has been deposited in the King's store at ten dollars per hundred,--a privilege heretofore confined to Spanish subjects.Well might Wilkinson return from New Orleans in a chariot and four to a grateful Kentucky! This year we have tripled, nay, quadrupled, our crop of tobacco, and we are here to-night to give thanks to the author of this prosperity.'' Alas, Colonel Clark's hand was not as steady as of yore, and he spilled the liquor on the table as he raised his glass.``Gentlemen, a health to our benefactor.''
They drank it willingly, and withal so lengthily and noisily that Mr.Wilkinson stood smiling and bowing for full three minutes before he could be heard.He was a very paragon of modesty, was the General, and a man whose attitudes and expressions spoke as eloquently as his words.
None looked at him now but knew before he opened his mouth that he was deprecating such an ovation.
``Gentlemen,--my friends and fellow-Kentuckians,'' he said, ``I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness, but I assure you that I have done nothing worthy of it [loud protests].I am a simple, practical man, who loves Kentucky better than he loves himself.
This is no virtue, for we all have it.We have the misfortune to be governed by a set of worthy gentlemen who know little about Kentucky and her wants, and think less [cries of ``Ay, ay!''].I am not decrying General Washington and his cabinet; it is but natural that the wants of the seaboard and the welfare and opulence of the Eastern cities should be uppermost in their minds [another interruption].Kentucky, if she would prosper, must look to her own welfare.And if any credit is due to me, gentlemen, it is because I reserved my decision of his Excellency, Governor-general Miro, and his people until I saw them for myself.A little calm reason, a plain statement of the case, will often remove what seems an insuperable difficulty, and I assure you that Governor-general Miro is a most reasonable and courteous gentleman, who looks with all kindliness and neighborliness on the people of Kentucky.Let us drink a toast to him To him your gratitude is due, for he sends you word that your tobacco will be received.''
``In General Wilkinson's barges,'' said Mr.Wharton leaning over and subsiding again at once.
The General was the first to drink the toast, and he sat down very modestly amidst a thunder of applause.
The young man on the other side of me, somewhat flushed, leaped to his feet.
``Down with the Federal government!'' he cried; ``what have they done for us, indeed? Before General Wilkinson went to New Orleans the Spaniards seized our flat boats and cargoes and flung our traders into prison, ay, and sent them to the mines of Brazil.The Federal government takes sides with the Indians against us.And what has that government done for you, Colonel?'' he demanded, turning to Clark, ``you who have won for them half of their territory? They have cast you off like an old moccasin.The Continental officers who fought in the East have half-pay for life or five years' full pay.
And what have you?''
There was a breathless hush.A swift vision came to me of a man, young, alert, commanding, stern under necessity, self-repressed at all times--a man who by the very dominance of his character had awed into submission the fierce Northern tribes of a continent, who had compelled men to follow him until the life had all but ebbed from their bodies, who had led them to victory in the end.And I remembered a boy who had stood awe-struck before this man in the commandant's house at Fort Sackville.Ay, and I heard again his words as though he had just spoken them, ``Promise me that you will not forget me if I am --unfortunate.'' I did not understand then.And now because of a certain blinding of my eyes, I did not see him clearly as he got slowly to his feet.He clutched the table.He looked around him--I dare not say--vacantly.
And then, suddenly, he spoke with a supreme anger and a supreme bitterness.