Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

i6 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.
party in question, somewhat to the consternation of those of
my family who knew his pronounced abolitionism, and the
equally pronounced pro-slavery views of those who were to
dine with me next day. But there was no help for it; indeed,
I was glad to meet the gifted and polished Doctor. My own
mind was far from clear as to the justice of the course of my
party in regard to Kansas, and I made no concealment of my
doubts. The angry protests of the North against that contemplated villainy were being heard in the elections. The Democracy had just been unhorsed, right and left, North and South,
by the Know-Nothing storm, and the old leaders knew that
meant something more than hostility to foreigners and Catholics, and was in fact the first mutterings of a far greater tempest. The Southern leaders of the day were not yet ready to
hazard a rebellion. They were eager to conciliate Northern
anti-slavery men; and those I knew were always gentlemen in
social life. This was especially so with Slidell, Benjamin,
Breckinridge, Cobb, etc. And so, when the restraint of the
first course or two was thawed by a generous draught of champagne, those who sat at my board were quickly attracted by the
agreeable manners and dazzling wit of my abolition friend. He
gradually monopolized their whole attention by his comments
on books and men, and his full knowledge of the resources of
their own section.
At last one of them said, " Pray, Doctor Elder, how is it that
one of your tastes and learning should be so opposed to Southern rights and institutions?" That opened the ball, and, nothing loth, he answered with a story I can never forget; a story
which I believe has never been forgotten by any one who heard
it: "When I lived in Pittsburgh, gentlemen," said the Doctor,
"where I had the honor to vote for James G. Birney for President in 1844, being one of a very, very small party, which will
soon control Pennsylvania by an Andrew Jackson majority, we
had a strange character among us who occasionally made