The Governor waved his hand at the crowd of silent waiting men. "Your men are ready--the first question is the purchase of arms. I think a stand of 75,000 will be sufficient for all contingencies?"
"The limit of your purchases should be our power to pay--"
"You can't mean it!" the Governor exclaimed.
"I repeat it--the limit of your purchase of arms should be the power to pay. I say this to every State in the South. We shall need all we can get and many more I fear."
"On the other hand," Davis continued earnestly, "we are sure to underestimate them at every turn."
"A great war is impending, Governor, whose end no man can foresee. We are not prepared for it. We have no arms, we have no ammunition and we have no establishments to manufacture them. The South has never realized and does not now believe that the North will fight her on the issue of secession. They do not understand the silent growth of the power of centralization which has changed the opinions of the North under the teaching of Abolition fanatics--"
"God help us!" he continued. "War is a terrible calamity even when waged against aliens and strangers--our people are mad. They know not what they do!"
The new Commander hurried to Briarfield, his plantation home, to complete his preparations for a long absence.
Socola on a sudden impulse asked the honor of accompanying him. It was granted without question and with cordial hospitality.
It was an opportunity not to be lost. An intimate view of this man in his home might be of the utmost importance. He promised Jennie to hasten to Fairview when he had spent two days at Briarfield. Mrs. Barton was glad of the opportunity to set her house in order for her charming and interesting guest.
The Davis plantation was a distinct shock to his fixed New England ideas of the hellish institution of Slavery.
The devotion of these simple black men and women to their master was not only genuine, it was pathetic. He had never before conceived the abject depths to which a human being might sink in contentment with chains.
And he had come to break chains! These poor ignorant blacks kissed the hand that bound them and called him their best friend.
The man they called master actually moved among them, a minister of love and mercy. He advised the negroes about the care of their families in his long absence. He talked as a Hebrew Patriarch to his children. He urged the younger men and women to look after the old and helpless.