Grant's army is
swarming into Tennessee. McClellan is drilling three hundred thousand
men in Washington to descend on Richmond. It's no time to nurse such
reptiles in our bosom--"
"I can't play the petty tyrant--"
"They'll sting you to death--I warn you--no administration on earth can
live in times of war and endure such infamous abuse as these
conspirators are now heaping on your head. And mark you--they have only
begun. The junta of disgruntled generals which they have organized will
strangle the cause of the South unless you grip the situation to-day
with a hand of steel. They are laying their plans in the new Congress to
paralyze your work and heap on your head the scorn of the world."
The President moved with a gesture of impatience.
"I've told you, Benjamin, that I will not suppress these papers nor sign
your order for the arrest of the editors. I am leading the cause of a
great people to preserve Constitutional liberty. Freedom of speech is
one of their rights--"
"In times of peace, yes--but not in the crisis of war when the tongue of
a fool may betray the lives of millions. I am not here merely to ask you
to suppress these three treacherous rags--I'm here to ask a bigger and
far more important thing. I want you to stop this inaugural ceremony
to-day--"
Davis rose with a quick excited movement.
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