[WILLIAMS] SECOND PRESIDENT LINCOLN 139 



sufficient adhesion to its time-honoured politics, which could not be 

 got to acknowledge the superiority of the North, had to be taught a 

 lesson. The mere election of a Northerner would not be sufficient; 

 Cleveland and Harrison and McKinley and Roosevelt and Taft were 

 from the North, and some other means must be adopted. A brilliant 



thought struck the mind of Mr. — — -, Mr. — — -, Mr. , whatever 



is his name? You know, every American knows, the man I mean — 

 the man who got the most votes in Ohio, Mr. — — -, but no matter 

 what the name — let us say one of the most illustrious of the Electors 

 and let it go at that. He said: "Let us pick out a Southerner, one 

 of a class which the Southerners despise, and put him over them" — 

 Agreed — but ",surely you don't mean a nigger?" "Why not?" 

 "Why not, indeed?" Agreed and agreed. 



And then another illustrious Elector — blame my treacherous 

 memory anyway — why can't I remember the name of that remarkable 

 man? Another illustrious Elector said that he had spent the previous 

 winter in Georgia, had noticed the big, indolent, jolly black with the 

 historic name and numerous progeny; that no one respected him but 

 everybody liked him, thereby reversing the situation of the present 

 occupant of the White House, that he was biddable and not uppish, 

 not like— but why continue? What was wanted was a complete 

 change. The South, which had resented Roosevelt seating Booker 

 Washington at his table, would now see a Bookerer than Booker 

 sitting in Washington's chair and learn their place. Moreover, there 

 would be the incidental advantage that Roosevelt's favourite in- 

 junction to the American people would be constantly in mind and 

 race suicide would be discredited. 



The second Abraham Lincoln came in state to Washington, 

 Aunt Mandy rules the White House with an unskilled and gentle 

 rule, Ab'm Junior is the cock of his school and little Onyx can be seen 

 any fine day sporting her red and yellow stockings on the lawn — 

 stockings the first she had ever possessed but they are gorgeous. 



W' hich things are an allegory — the legally possible is the morally 

 impossible; evils elaborately guarded against are wholly imaginary 

 and non-existent or at the worst negligible, and the prophylactic 

 precautions are full of the very evils they are designed to prevent. 



The Electoral College is the only piece of camouflage in the 

 American Constitution. The Constitution of Britain and of Canada 

 is the most elaborate and successful system of camouflage the world 

 ever saw. If one sees anything laid down in the American Con- 

 stitution it is — except ihat farcical College^ — certain to be so; if in 

 the British Constitution it is certain not to be so. The American 



