playing it to win on Howle's judgment and reputation. It lost.
Without the ghost of a smile, the old statesman said:
"Howle, you owe me five cents."
As he turned abruptly on his club-foot from the table, he encountered the editor and his friends, a Western manufacturer and a Wall Street banker. They were soon seated at a table in a private room, over a dinner of choice oysters, diamond-back terrapin, canvas-back duck, and champagne.
They presented their plea for a truce in his fight until popular passion had subsided.
He heard them in silence. His answer was characteristic:
"The will of the people, gentlemen, is supreme," he said, with a sneer. "We are the people. 'The man at the other end of the Avenue' has dared to defy the will of Congress. He must go. If the Supreme Court lifts a finger in this fight, we will reduce that tribunal to one man or increase it to twenty at our pleasure."
"But the Constitution" broke in the chairman.
"There are higher laws than paper compacts. We are conquerors treading conquered soil. Our will alone is the source of law. The drunken boor who claims to be President is in reality an alien of a conquered province."
"We protest," exclaimed the man of money, "against the use of such epithets in referring to the Chief Magistrate of the Republic!"
"And why, pray?" sneered the Commoner.
"In the name of common decency, law, and order. The
