4. Electioneering
" Mark. " said the major, in atone of paternal autl ority, and after long and deliberate chewing of his quid of tobacco, " ef it hadn't been for me, explaining and mollifying things and the like, you would have set all Rocky Fork ag'inst you. Why, Jim McGowan was bilin' mad. You mus'n't look at purty faces and the like too long, ef you mean to be a member this winter. A man like you owes somethin' to himself and and his country and the like, now, you know. Iley ? "
Mark was in no mood now to receive this remonstrance In the cool gray dawning of the morning, when the excitement of the night had passed off, there came to him a sense of having played the fool. A man never bears to be told that he has made a fool of himself, when he knows it beforehand.
" Major Lathers," retorted Mark, stiffly, "I didn't bring you along for a guardian. I'll have you know that I can take care of myself in this canvass. If I choose to enjoy myself for a few hours dancing with a pretty girl, what hum is it ?"
" If you was to be beat, and the like, now, you know, by about six votes, you'd find out that folks as dances has to pay the blackest kind of nigger-fiddlers sometimes with compound interest and damages and costs, and sich like, all added in and multiplied. Don't let's you and me git into no squabble, nur nothin', like Cain and Abel did in Paradise. I don't want to be no gardeen, nur the like, to no such rapid-goin' youth as you. Risk's too big, you know. You've got book-learn in', and you can speechify, now, you know, bat fer whackin ' about the bushes and the likes, ole Tom Lathers is hard to git ahead of. You shoot sharp at long range and off-hand, I clap my hands every time you shoot. Bat I pick up the votes and salt 'em down fer winter use and the like. Now, I think we better keep pards till election's over, anyhow. Ef you want to quarrel afterward, w'y go in, that's all, and I'm on hand. I done what I could to keep Rocky Fork from gittin' on a freshet last night, and if you go back on me now, it'll be ungrateful, and we'll both be beat all to thunder and the like."
With these words the breach was healed for the time, but Mark was sulky all that day.
A few days after the dance at Rocky Fork, Mark had an opportunity to retrieve his fortunes by making one of his taking speeches at the Republican meeting-house only a few miles away from Kirtley's, but in a neighborhood much more friendly to the Whig candidate. This Republican meeting-house had been built as a union church, in which all denominations were to worship by turns. But, in 1840, sectarian spirit ran to high for the lion and the lamb to lie down together. The Episcopal Methodists had quarreled with the Radicals, or Methodist Protestants, about the use of the church on the second and fourth Sundays in the month, while the Hardshells, or Anti-means Baptists had attempted to drive the Regular Baptists out of the morning hour, and the Two-seed Baptists and the Free-wilis had complicated the matter, and the New Lights and the Adventists ard the Disciples were bound also to assist in the tight. The result was that the benches had been carried oS first by one party, then by another, and there had been locks and padlocks innumerable broken from the door. So that the visionary experiment of a Republican meeting-house in a coimtry where popular education was in its infancy and sectarian strife at its worst, had only resulted in teaching these militant Christians the arts of burglary and sacrilege. The Whigs and Democrats, however, managed to use the much-damaged church for political meetings without coming to blows over it. On this occasion Bonamy was to have a discussion with his opponent, the Democratic candidate for representative, one Henry Hardin. But, as Hardin had no gift for speech-making, while Mark had, there could be no doubt of the issue.
The Democrats for the most part came out in surly anticipation of defeat, but old Enoch Jackson, the wirepuller for the party in that part of the country, shook his head significantly and gave the " boys " to understand that " he knew somethin' or mother that would make the Whigs squirm." And it was passed round from one to another that " old Nuck had somethin' in his head." So the Democrats marched into the meeting with an unterrified air.
Mark Bonamy felt very sure of success. He was to make the last speech and Major Lathers assured his Whig friends that when Hardin was through with his speech, young Bonamy would chaw him all up and the like, now, you knov. Hardin had, however, been carefully coached " for the occasion and he made a fair argument of the heavier sort, against the National Bank, against internal improvements by the general government, and especially in favor of free trade, spicing his remarks, which were delivered in a loud, monotonous tone, with many appeals to the popular prejudice against the Federalists, of whom, it was claimed, the Whigs were lineal descendants. At proper intervals in the speech, which was of uniform heaviness, Enoch Jackson would bring hia heavy, well-oiled boot down upon the floor, whereupon his trained partisans followed his lead with energetic applause, which gave the exhausted orator time to breathe and to take a sip of water, while it also served to give an appearance of vivacity to the speech. But Bonamy felt himself able to brush away the effect of Hardin's speech with a dozen telling hits delivered in his magnetic manner.
As soon, therefore, as Hardin had ceased, Mark rose and began in his most conciliatory and vote-winning fashion :
" Fellow-citizens of Brown Township : I want to say in the beginning that it is with no animosity to Democrats that I rise to address you. I hurrahed for the hero of New Orleans when I was a boy. Here are the men who voted for my father. I have no unfriendly feeling toward them, I assure you."
" You're a turn-coat," cried one of the young men. But this was what Bonamy wanted. Contradiction was his foil.
" I am a turn-coat, am I ? " He cried in a burst of indignation. " I will show you whether I am a turn-coat or not. Where did I learn the principle of protection? From General Jackson himself, as I will proceed to show."
But at this point everybody's attention was drawn to a storm of oaths coming from two voices without the door.
" You lie, you scoundrel. I'll lick you with an inch of your life if you say another word."
The voice was Jim McGowau's, and Major Lathers, knowing at once that mischief was intended, closed the door just as the other voice cried :
" You dassent tech me with your little linger, you cussed coward you."
" Fellow-citizens," resumed Mark, "I have been called a turn-coat, now I "
"Le' go of me," Jim McGowan was heard to say. " I kin kill Sam Peters the best, day he ever saw. Le' go of me, I say."
" Le' go of him," cried Peters. " Pll spile his pro-file fer him."
Within there was confusion. Only Enoch Jackson appeared entirely quiet and really anxious to hear what Bonamy had to say. The rest would rather have seen a fight than to have heard the best speaker in the world.
" I have been called a turn-coat," resumed Mark, " and I want to "
But here the cries out-of-doors indicated that the two had broken loose from their friends and were about to have a "stand up light." This was too much for the audience. It was of no use for Mark to say " Fellowcitizens." The fellow-citizens were already forming a ring around Sam Peters and Jim McGowan, who, on their parts, had torn off their shirts and stood stripped for the fight, which for some reason they delayed, in spite of their vehement protestations of eagerness for it. Bonamy was left with no auditors but Major Lathers, Enoch Jackson, who looked at him innocently, and his opponent, who sat decorously waiting for him to proceed.
When Mark desisted from speaking, Enoch Jackson's triumph was complete, but he set out to walk home with the gravity of a statesman. Mark, however, did not give up the battle easily. He called a Whig justice into the church, swore out a writ against Peters and McGowan, and helped arrest them with his own hands. This prompt action saved him from the ignominy of entire defeat, but it was too late to save the day. By the time the participants in tiiis sham battle had paid their tines, the day had so far waned that it was impossible to rally the audience to listen to any further speaking.
Lathers did not say anything to Mark aa they rode away. Bonamy was in continual expectation of a reprimand for his folly in running after " party girls and the like." But Lathers knew that Mark needed no further rebuke.
From that time until the day of election Bonamy gave his whole heart to the canvass, and his taking speeches and insinuating manners enabled him in some degree to retrieve the error he had committed. It was only on the very last day of that exciting campaign that he ventured to turn aside on his way home and ask for a drink of water at old Gid Kirtley's fence, loitering half an hour without dismounting, while Nancy Kirtley, on the other side of the fence, made Mark forget her foolish talk by shifting from one attitude to another so as to display face and figure to the best advantage. Only the necessity for reaching Luzerne that evening in time for " the grand rally " with which the canvass closed, could have persuaded the dazzled young man to cut short the interview. This he found hard of accomplishment, the bewitching siren using all her endeavor to detain him. It was only by sacrificing a watch-seal of no great value, upon which he saw her covetous eyes fastened, that he succeeded in disentangling himself. He swore at himself half the waj to Luzerne for his " devilish imprudence " in giving her the trinket. But a hopeful temperament brought him peace after a while, and he made a most effective appeal to the Whigs at Luzerne to " rally " round the hero of Tippecanoe.