"Let it
hang there undisturbed," said he. "Give our clients to
understand that the election of a President makes no difference
in the firm.... If I live, I'm coming back some time, and then
we'll go right on practising law as if nothing had happened."
How far removed from self-sufficiency was the man whose thoughts,
on the eve of his elevation to the Presidency, lingered in a
provincial law office, fondly insistent that only death should
prevent his returning some time and resuming in those homely
surroundings the life he had led previous to his greatness. In a
mood of wistfulness and of intense preoccupation, he began his
journey to Washington. It was not the mood from which to strike
fire and kindle hope. To the anxious, listening country his
speeches on the journey to Washington were disappointing.
Perhaps his strangely sensitive mind felt too powerfully the
fatefulness of the moment and reacted with a sort of lightness
that did not really represent the real man. Be that as it may,
he was never less convincing than at that time. Nor were people
impressed by his bearing. Often he appeared awkward, too much in
appearance the country lawyer. He acted as a man who was ill at
ease and he spoke as a man who had nothing to say.
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