Read The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln for Free Online Page B

family is in textiles, not steel.”
    “Yes, well, the textile makers want higher tariffs. So do the steelmakers. High tariffs mean soft money. Wade is a soft-money man, the way most Westerners are. Mr. Lincoln used to be, too, but Tubby says he’s about to do a deal with the bankers. If the bankers will support Lincoln, then he’ll support a lower tariff.”
    “Mr. Lincoln would not alter his policies for political support.”
    “Your man may be President, Hills, but he’s still a politician.” Fielding sank deeper into his armchair. “Besides, it’s just what Tubby says.”
    Jonathan felt a headache coming on, caused by either the cigar or yet another implausible theory from Fielding’s endless supply. “I’m going to bed,” he said.
    Fielding let his friend get halfway across the room before springing his surprise. “Tubby also said that any day now they will admit Nebraska to the Union.”
    “We have an agreement!”
    “That they will not admit Nebraska until after the trial. I know. ButTubby says they will go forward next week. And the state legislature in Omaha, in an agony of gratitude, will immediately send to Washington two anti-Lincoln Senators, who will be seated just in time to vote for your man’s conviction.”
    Jonathan was thinking about the blackboard at the office. This afternoon the numbers had read
15–29–8
. If Fielding’s information was accurate—and on such matters he was rarely wrong—then by next week there would be fifty-four Senators, not fifty-two, and the count would be fifteen for acquittal, thirty-one for conviction, and eight undecided. And suddenly, rather than winning half of the undecided votes, Lincoln would need a majority of them in order to survive.
    “Thank you,” said Jonathan, heading for the stairs. “Good night, Fields.”
    “Hills. Just want you to know. I’m serious.”
    “About what?”
    “Miss Canner. I should very much like to meet her. Sooner the better.”
    A perfectly proper request, but it bothered Jonathan quite unreasonably for days thereafter.
    II
    “Well, that was rather exciting,” said Dinah Berryhill, who did not sound the least bit ruffled. “I had no idea that observing the House of Representatives could be quite such fun.”
    “Fun!” cried Abigail. “It was horrible!”
    It was Tuesday, February 19, and the House had just voted to impeach the President and send his case to the Senate for trial. Abigail, under the guise of picking up more books at the Library of Congress, had gone with her friend Dinah to watch history being made. She knew by now, the second day of her third week of employment, that Jonathan would cover for her.
    Jonathan always covered for her.
    With his assistance, at first reluctant but now smilingly conspiratorial, she had been able to slip out of chores to spend more and more time reading. Not often, perhaps, but occasionally. Jonathan treated her with an awkward kindness. The young people of Abigail’s set—Dinah foremost among them—were unanimous in their view that the whiterace meant them no good; whites were kind only when they wanted something. Abigail largely shared these views. And she was no fool. She had spent enough time in the world of men to know what men generally wanted. Therefore, she was at pains to let Jonathan know that she was engaged. As it turned out, so was he.
    “Of course he is,” said Dinah, the two of them in the midst of the crowd descending the snowy slope from the Capitol following the vote. Her arms were out to her sides for balance, a pose Abigail would not dream of striking in public, even if the cost of her reticence was an occasional fall. Dinah was a stout, saucy woman whose family had arranged for her to be finished—poorly, in Abigail’s secret opinion—at a school near Philadelphia. The Berryhills owned tracts of timber in upstate New York and a large shipbuilding firm on Cape Cod. Dinah had traveled all over Europe. One of Abigail’s constant frustrations, at