They had nothing
to lose; therefore, they could chant a goodness as to the loss of
others; they could praise self-sacrifice, having nothing themselves to
sacrifice. As for human love, what was it but the feeling evoked by
consideration? Pay a man well and he will love you. Give him good
working conditions and he will tolerate the service. Put him to the test
by short pay or bad conditions and he will hate you. All of this pointed
to the love of men and women. I tried to draw him out on this. I do not
know what the lack of his mind was, whether of subtlety or imagination.
At any rate it was a realm of thought to which his face was a blank, and
to which his mind seemed to have no reaction.
He turned now to the Oregon settlement. He was still furious over it,
still indignant at Polk. He had stood for 54:40 as the northern
boundary; he was chagrined at the 49th parallel. Why had Polk fulminated
first for 54:40 and faded off to the 49th parallel? England! He hated my
mother country with a deep and rancorous hatred. Coming from Vermont he
had taken into his bones a poison for the British atrocities of the
Revolution; he loathed England for her conduct of the War of 1812, the
ruthless burning of Washington, with all its priceless records of the
early days of the republic. He was eager, restive to fight England.
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