"But, God bless me! you don't call it out of the way for me to seek the nomination? Some one must be president! Why not myself? Now, I ask your support."
"My support is worth little, Jim," said my chief. "But have you earned it? You have never consulted my welfare, nor has Jackson. I had no majority behind me in the Senate. I doubt even the House now. Of what use could I be to you?"
"At least, you could decline to do anything definite in this Texas matter."
"Why should a man ever do anything indefinite, Jim Polk?" asked Calhoun, bending on him his frosty eyes.
"But you may set a fire going which you can not stop. The people may get out of hand before the convention!"
"Why should they not? They have interests as well as we. Do they not elect us to subserve those interests?"
"I yield to no man in my disinterested desire for the welfare of the American people," began Polk pompously, throwing back the hair from his forehead.
"Of course not," said Calhoun grimly. "My own idea is that it is well to give the people what is already theirs. They feel that Texas belongs to them."
"True," said the Tennesseean, hesitating; "a good strong blast about our martial spirit and the men of the Revolution—that is always good before an election or a convention. Very true. But now in my own case—"
"Your own case is not under discussion, Jim. It is the case of the United States! I hold a brief for them, not for you or any other man!"