When the Splendor Falls Read Online Free PDF

anything else. After all, the law is a splendid profession, especially as a springboard into other professions.”
    “Like politics?”
    “I speak only from very limited experience,” Nathan deferred with a smile.
    “I’m expecting to see you run for senator next, Nathan. I’ll back you, son. Call in some old debts to make sure you get the nod from Richmond,” his father-in-law promised. “We need some steady voices in Congress now that the Republicans have nominated this Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate and the Democrats couldn’t even come up with one. Half of the delegates walked out of the convention in Charleston, and I don’t feel any easier about what came out of their reconvening in Baltimore. The party is split, and this Breckenridge, although he was vice president, is a Kentuckian. I don’t know too much about this Douglas fella, except that I like his ideas on letting the people of the states and even the territories decide whether or not they want to vote for or against slavery. Know things are changing. Travers Hill has very few slaves and soon I’ll see that there are none. I’ve always found the selling and buying of human beings to be barbarous, so I won’t do it,” he admitted. “Of course, I don’t grow cotton, tobacco, or even rice at Travers Hill, so ’tis easy enough for me to speak thusly. All I need are enough hands to bring in the crops we do grow for our own table, and I hire out for most of that. I raise horses, Nathan. That’s my business. I’m blessed to have Sweet John handling my beauties, or I’d be paying an Irishman double just to have him training my bloods. But that would be paltry compared to what my grandfather would’ve had to pay to get his tobacco picked at Willow Creek.”
    “I understand, sir. I am deeply concerned about this peculiar institution of ours, and yet, I cannot condemn my own brethren because of the beliefs that have been necessary to the survival of our way of life. I believe that, eventually, we will right this wrong, but unless we are given the time, and left alone to change, then there will be irrevocable harm done. Indeed, sir, I fear the worst,” Nathan admitted, voicing aloud for the first time his most nightmarish thoughts. “I’m beginning to doubt if we will ever be able to settle peacefully this question of the disposition of the territories. It is the burning match, sir, to the powder keg. I’ve listened to the voices on both sides becoming angrier and angrier, growing more unreasonable in their demands every day. Armageddon will be the outcome if the ardor of some isn’t cooled soon. I wish there were more who were at least willing to talk about change.”
    “I am not optimistic, Nathan. I expect to hear any day now that South Carolina has seceded from the Union over this question of whether to keep the territories free soil or let a man take his property, including slaves, into them without fear of breaking the law or having his property confiscated. I can understand both sides. There were a lot of good Southerners who fought in the war and helped win those new lands from Mexico, and now they are to be denied their rights because of a few hotheaded Northerners. Trouble indeed, Nathan, when you have a Senator from Massachusetts beaten over the head with a stick by a Representative from South Carolina who didn’t like his abolitionist talk. Not surprising to find this madman John Brown raiding and killing when that goes on in the Senate by supposedly sane men. Of course, some things never seem to change, since I recall that this was the very same talk in Charleston even when I was courting Mrs. Travers. Let’s see, that was about the time of the Purchase, wasn’t it?” he said with a wink.
    “I believe, sir, you refer to my great-grandmother’s time,” she said.
    “My pardon, ma’am. Of course, I do remember quite vividly that there always has been a Leigh, perhaps even the old colonel, with one of the loudest