In Tammany's back parlour, Walt made the acquaintance of many notables, and not least, of an old Colonel Fellowes,[74] who loved to discuss Tom Paine over a social glass, and to scatter to the four winds the legends of inebriety which had gathered about his later years of poverty and neglect. But that Whitman was a violent partisan even at this time, seems to be disproved by the fact that in 1843 or 1844 he contributed political verses to Horace Greeley's _Tribune_, a paper which had grown out of the Whig election sheet.[75] And though, like his father, he adhered now and always to the general political tradition of the Democrats, was a free trader, jealous of the central power, and voted with his party till it split in 1848, he was as good an Abolitionist as Greeley himself. Indeed, both the _Tribune_ poems are inspired by the theme of slavery, and as if in witness to the reality of their inspiration, he breaks for the first time into the irregular metres he was to make his own.[76] A religious ardour breathes from these singular Scriptural utterances. The first, "Blood-money," is a homily on the text, "Guilty of the body and the blood of Christ". In the slave, whom he describes as "hunted from the arrogant equality of the rest," he sees the new incarnation of that "divine youth" whose body Iscariot sold and is still a-selling. It is an admirable piece of pathos, fresh, direct and unmannered, and by far the most individual and striking thing Whitman had done. And it was the only one which could be regarded as prophetic of the work that was to follow. Especially is this felt in such lines as The cycles, with their long shadows, have stalked silently forward, Since those ancient days; many a pouch enwrapping meanwhile Its fee, like that paid for the son of Mary. The piece was signed "Paumanok," as also was "A Dough-face Song," which appeared in the _Evening Post_. The second of the _Tribune_ poems, "Wounded in the House of Friends,"[77] is inferior to the first in poetic merit, though adopting a somewhat similar medium. It is a rather violent denunciation of those intimates of freedom whose allegiance to her can be bought off--"a dollar dearer to them than Christ's blessing"--elderly "dough-faces" whose hearts are in their purses. It was upon Northern traitors to the cause rather than upon the people of the South, that Whitman poured out his indignation: and this position he always maintained. The _Tribune_ itself was at the time an ardent supporter of Clay's candidature for the Presidency; but Clay subsequently trimmed upon this very question, and this action, by alienating the anti-slavery party in New York, resulted in his defeat at the polls.