Page:Aladdin O'Brien (1902).pdf/113

XIII

ANNIBAL ST. JOHN'S campaign for reëlection to the senatorship was, owing to a grievous error in tact, of doubtful issue. A hue and cry arose against him among his constituents, and things in general fell out so unhappily that it looked toward the close of the contest as if he would be obliged to sit idle and dangle his heels, while the two halves of the country, pushing against each other, were rising in the middle like the hinge of a toggle-joint into the most momentous crisis in the nation's history. It looked as if the strong man, with his almost blasphemous intolerance of disunion, his column-like power of supporting, and his incomparable intellect, was to stand in the background and watch the nightmare play from afar. He fought for his place