“And now for the 'politic and right,'” responded Noah, “Calhoun must go with the current. A statesman is a scientist of circumstances; he must not fight wind and tide, but use them. In South Carolina, Nullification and Secession are doctrines of a first respectability. One meets folk daily who would sooner be respectable than right; and Calhoun may well be one of these. No,” observed Noah in conclusion, speaking with emphasis, “Calhoun must adopt his state, or his state will not adopt him. He can not build himself for anything without his state; that is the keystone, wanting which his arch of the future comes tumbling to the ground.” “Then you regard Calhoun as helpless, and that he could not, if he would, rescue himself on a question of Nullification or Secession?” “No; he's as helpless as a fly in amber; he must go with his state or be lost.” “Do these proposals of a right to nullify and a right to secede, then, strike so deep with their roots? I had not thought men cared so much for tariff.” “Sir,” replied Noah, “while present States Rights discussion circles about tariff as argument most convenient, behind it, and as the grand motive, lurks black slavery. A protest against tariff links many rich merchants, not alone in Charleston, but in every great seaboard city from Baltimore to Boston, to this doctrine. They would bring in goods free. There be many among these, tugged upon by their pockets, who can be brought to States Rights for a tariff argument, and who would turn off in horror were the true black slavery reason advanced. There you have the cunning of Calhoun.” “Then you hold slavery to be the mainspring of States Rights as a movement?” “Absolutely,” and Noah's tones left no doubt of his conviction. “Slavery overshadows all. It is a question to yet shake the country in its soul.” There was silence between us; we walked on, I, for my side, ruminating the words of Noah. The more I considered them, the more they looked the truth. Calhoun's enmity I made no mouth about believing; indeed, as I've set forth, it already had dwelt in my knowledge for long. Getting back to what was presently being acted, I spoke of that cabinet trio whom my companion had marked as of the clan and same family of politics with Calhoun. “Branch, Berrien, and Ingham,” repeated Noah, “are blood and bone with Calhoun. If they drive out Eaton, there may come a fourth to strengthen them. Four of a cabinet six! That would make a mighty beginning in any hunting of the White House.” “And what,” said I, remembering Peg, and my rage swelling, “what are we to think of ones who would hunt a White House across the naked honor of a woman?” “What we are to think,” said Noah, with a toss of the hand, “will be the least of their worry when once they succeed.” “And that will never happen,” I returned. “I hold it between my palms to defeat their best laid plan--their most darling chicane, as you shall witness.”