about to set up a government of his own was the White House. Mr.
Davis had long regarded this pleasant looking old mansion as a
desirable residence for a gentleman born to rule over a people. Once
comfortably seated in this pleasant mansion, a wonderful change
would be worked in the political opinions of those whose minds were
in doubt. Considered as master of the situation, his friends in the
North would increase fourfold. And there was no knowing the turn
respect for him abroad might take. A gentleman quietly settled down
in the White House, if only for four years, is sure to have a large
increase in the number of his friends, all ready either to accept
his favors or sound his virtues. Even slavery, that had scourged
mankind for so many generations, would have found a great increase
of friends and admirers if Mr. Davis had made a home in the White
House; so prone is weak human nature to bow to power. Indeed, I am
not so sure that, with such a turn in our political affairs, those
preachers who had been asserting the divine origin of slavery would
not then have proclaimed that God himself was its great protector--a
blasphemy the Christian Church will some day be ashamed of.

In addition to the White House being a desirable residence for Mr.
Davis, there were those fine public buildings so much admired by
strangers. They were just what Mr. Davis and his friends wanted in
starting a new government, and would come in very handy. With
Washington in his possession, and our worthy President and his
Cabinet locked up in the arsenal, or sent on a traveling expedition
into a colder climate for the benefit of their health, Mr. Davis's
new enterprise would become a fixture in the history of nations. And
there was a time when Mr. Davis could, with the means in his power,
have accomplished all these things.