Queen (27 page)

    political world, and some of the intrigues that had caused him to resign

    as governor of Florida.

158 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    "It was for the best," he said. "Rachel found the climate abominable. "

    He kept his temper under control and joked about his political opponents.

    "Shook them all when I retired," he laughed. "No one believed me."

    "I'm not surprised," Sally said with a charming smile. "You're much too

    young to retire."

    "I fully intended it," Andrew said. "I was tired. I was sick. I was not

    fit to be president.

There was a soft silence.

"You have changed your mind?" James asked him.

There was another silence.

"Yes," Andrew said. "I have changed my mind."

    Sally excused herself, and Parson Dick brought port to the table. Andrew

    helped himself to a liberal measure.

    "The country needs me," Andrew said. "We go to rack and ruin. The

    bureaucracy gets larger and fouler and more corrupt by the day, and the

    tentacles of government are reaching farther and farther into our lives,

    until they will strangle us.' I

    It was the old cry, not only of Andrew, but of Thomas Jefferson.

    "We are in debt," Andrew said, warming to his theme. James began to feel

    as if he were a crowd of a thousand, and Andrew was on a soapbox.

    "How can a country as rich as ours be in debt?" Andrew demanded.

    "The war?" James offered mildly, but Andrew snorted in derision.

    "The war is an excuse," he said, close to shouting now. "It is the

    departments and committees and subcommittees that keep us broke-us, the

    poor simple farmers who pay for Washington's excess."

    James tried hard not to smile. Andrew was certainly a farmer, but he was

    not poor, and very far from simple.

    "And that bank!" Andrew sighed heavily. The central government bank was

    his special black beast. "They lend money freely when we don't need it,

    and foreclose on our mortgages when times are bad."

    BLOODLINES 159

    James thought that this was the practice of all banks, but it was true

    that the central bank favored the rich, and especially the

    industrializing North.

Andrew poured more port, and then smiled.

    "But you know all this; we have discussed it so often," he said.

"So the time has come?" James asked.

    "The time has come," Andrew agreed. "Not that I want it, no, by the

    eternal, I had as lief stay where I am, with my lovely Rachel and darling

    boys. But what can I do?"

    James understood it was a rhetorical question, and had no need of a

    reply. Andrew would do what he had intended to do all along. In any case,

    it was all nonsense. Andrew's "retirement" was a fiction. He had been

    elected to the Senate in Washington, and spent more than half of each

    year there.

    "The state legislature in Tennessee will formally nominate me for the

    presidency," Andrew said.

He paused for a moment.

"I want your help in Alabama."

    I want your help. These were the sweetest words that Andrew had ever said

    to James. I want your help. The old lion, the hero of New Orleans, the

    greatest general since Washington, needed James's help. Through all the

    years that he had walked in Andrew's shadow, James had waited for this

    moment. His political power seemed almost tangible to him.

    "Anything I can do," James responded graciously. "You know you have only

    to ask."

    Andrew nodded his head as graciously, and they got down to business.

    He wanted James to use all his political influence to persuade the

    government of Alabama to nominate him for the presidency.

"I will propose the motion myself," James agreed.

    Andrew was sure he would get a good popular vote, but in case there was

    a doubt, and the matter had to be resolved in the House of

    Representatives, he wanted James to start drumming up support for him.

    "You know far more people in Washington than I,- James said truthfully,

    but Andrew knew how to flatter his man.

    "Your influence is more substantial than you imagine," he said. "Your

    opinion is well respected."

160 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

And he wanted money for his campaign.

    "I thought we'd never get to it," James said, and laughed, to soften it.

    Andrew had the grace to smile, but was not altogether pleased by James's

    levity.

    They talked until late, about Andrew's aspirations for himself and the

    country, and they talked of the old days. The drunker Andrew got, the

    longer his speeches about his glorious military career became.

Alfred sat in the kitchen with Cap'n Jack, while Parson Dick dozed in a

corner, in case his Massa should ring. Alfred was enchanted by Annie.

He was unmarried, and longed to find a bride.

    "Dump this ol' buzzard, an' take me instead," he said with a chuckle, and

    Annie smiled, and shook her head.

    Alfred wished them both well, and told Annie stories of the old days in

    Nashville, and of the fun they'd had, and of their rowdy Massas.

    It was a new world for Annie. She was with men whom she liked and

    trusted, and they talked about their Massas with affection, but with a

    sense that they saw all the foibles and weaknesses of the men who owned

    them. They hated their slavery but had no alternative to it.

    "Them niggers runnin' away," Cap'n Jack said, talking of the several

    runaways from The Forks. "Where they gwine go?"

    "Henry got away," Annie said, of the slave who had run away and never

    been found.

    "He didn't come back," Cap'n Jack corrected her gently. "We don't know

    he got away. As like the catchers got him and killed him."

    Alfred nodded. "Any case, I bin up South," he said. Many of the slaves

    referred to the North as up South. "An' it ain't a whole lot differen'

    there. Niggers; is still niggers."

    He changed the subject to happier things, and told them of some of the

    extravagant personalities he had met, with Andrew in Washington, and made

    them laugh. Then the bell rang, and Alfred and Cap'n Jack went to put

    their Massas to bed.

Sally stirred when James got into bed, but drifted back to sleep. James

lay awake for a while, thinking of his conver-

    BLOODLINES 161

sation with Andrew. He had no doubt that Andrew would win the election-he

was still immensely popular with the people-and it would not hurt James

to support him or loan him money. It gave him some leverage over Andrew,

and, once again, it amused him to think that he would have influence with

the president of the United States, What pleased him most was that Andrew

thought he needed his help, and had asked for it. The world turns, James

thought.

    Then he had several ideas, which coalesced into one, which he thought

    brilliant.

    He would host a fine party, here at The Forks, and would invite every

    person of consequence whom he knew. At this party he would announce his

    intention to support Andrew's nomination. He remembered Cap'n Jack's

    coming wedding, and decided to give his guests some real fun. Cap'n Jack

    and Annie would be married at this enormous party, and the world, and his

    slaves, would see the benign face of slavery. They would see that it was

    not all beatings and lashings and rape and exploitation, but rather a

    unique and unrivaled management of the land and people. The South was

    always on the moral defensive about slavery, and James would change that.

    He would take the initiative, and show everyone how the system could be

    used in the best interests of all the people, white and black.

    The more he thought about it the more extravagant the party became, and

    the more successful his position, and he went to sleep with a big smile

    on his face that was only partly caused by the amount of port he had

    drunk.

Annie hated the idea when Cap'n Jack told her. She didn't want all that

fuss. She didn't want all those people staring at her. She wanted a quiet

ceremony, in which she and Cap'n Jack jumped over the broom into the land

of matrimony, as her mammy's mammy had done. As all slaves did. But she

had no choice in the matter. Her Massa had decreed it.

    Of all the many fine functions given at The Forks of Cypress, the wedding

    of Cap'n Jack and Annie was one of the finest. Three hundred guests

    attended, and the Southerners brought their slaves, so that nearly five

    hundred people saw the couple wed. Andrew was in Washington, but he sent

    Al-

    162 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

fred with Richard Coll, his aide from Florida, who was said to be sweet on

Eleanor's daughter, Mary.

    Annie was nervous, but looked lovely, in a dress that Sally had helped her

    choose, and they giggled about her full belly. Cap'n Jack looked splendid

    in new clothes provided by James. James's daughters Mary, Martha, and Mary

    Ellen attended Annie, and little Sassy was a flower girl. A.J., looking

    very smart, stayed with Sally, and Tiara nursed Jass. At the end of the

    ceremony, the couple jumped over the broom into the land of matrimony, and

    everyone cheered. Even Annie smiled then.

    A vast buffet was laid out on the lawn, and tables of food for the slaves

    at the side of the house. Slave catchers were employed to make sure that

    none of the visiting slaves ran away, and the field hands were given half

    a day off and allowed to watch from a distance. In any case it was fall,

    and the harvest had been picked.

    After everyone had eaten, they gathered to hear James make a speech. He

    praised Cap'n Jack and Annie, and said how proud he was of them, and that

    this day represented proof positive to the Northerners that slavery was

    ultimtely a benevolent institution. He talked about his dear friend Andrew

    Jackson, and his slave Alfred, who was best man at this very wedding, and

    went on to announce his support for the candidacy of Andrew Jackson for the

    presidency. He was wildly applauded.

    The fiddlers struck up the tune, and there was dancing. James and Sally

    mingled with their guests, renewing old friendships, greeting

    acquaintances. James's nephew Tom Kirkman was there with Elizabeth, Sally's

    daughter by her first husband, and they were planning their own wedding.

"Not another," James laughed. "I can't afford it!"

    William Perkins was there, whom James hardly remembered until Tom reminded

    him. Perkins had bought a property in Florence, and was full of gratitude

    to James and Tom.

    John Coffee was there, with his family, and a man James didn't know. He was

    introduced as Egbert Harris.

    "Told you I'd find you an overseer," John Coffee said to James. "This man's

    one of the best."

    They shook hands, and talked brietly, and agreed to meet again later, when

    the guests had gone.

    BLOODLINES 163

    At the side of the house, the slaves had their own party, and made their

    own music, and had a high old time.

But James did not.

Full of good cheer toward the world, he talked with some of his political

friends, and was surprised to discover the amount of antagonism that

existed toward the idea of Andrew as president.

    Andrew was uncouth, hot-tempered, and unpredictable. James could only

    agree.

    Andrew was a dueler and a street brawler. James could only agree.

    He had antagonized the Spanish in Florida. James could only agree.

    He had antagonized Britain, which was the South's major trading partner.

    James could only agree.

    He would destroy the central bank and allow the individual state banks

    to flourish without control. James could only agree.

    He had no experience in administration. James could only agree.

    He was ruthless in his dealings with the Indians. James could only agree.

    He had obtained his Indian treaties illegally, sometimes, perhaps often,

    with bribes.

James's blood ran cold.

How did anyone know?

    He left the party in a foul mood, and went to his study. He heard a tiny

    voice of doubt, like the whisper of wind in the trees before a storm.

Had he backed the wrong man?

    He shook the doubts aside. Of course Andrew would win; the public adored

    him.

But did they?

    They admired him-as a hero, a general, a soldier-but would they vote for

    him as president?

    In the South, almost certainly, but in the North he was known to be

    rabidly against industry, which was the life blood of the New England

    states. He venerated the simple fanner, but believed in untrammeled

    capitalism, which sometimes destroyed the farmers whose cause he

    espoused. He was also a slaveholder, and dedicated to the expansion of