"I have no fear on that score. You will fulfil the mission that is manifestly set for you. Keep the thought of the people uppermost in your mind when you are speaking, and it will give you the needed inspiration.
"Come, we will review the bill of complaint which the people find against the Trusts."
They rapidly name, in chronological order, the events that have been instrumental in bringing about the degradation of labor. There is the primal generator of universal distress—the private corporation—which operates with all the functions of an individual, yet is free from even the most ordinary obligations that are enforced upon the individual; from the private corporation has sprung the Trust, a consolidation of corporate bodies which intensifies the evils that exist under the former institution, and as an inevitable consequence of Trusts comes private Monopolies. These last have been the direct cause of awakening the people to a realization of their condition. For each aggression of corporate wealth the people have been forced from their position as free men to that of servants. The climax is reached when the Monopolies adopt the paternal principle of pensioning their employees, thus making of them retainers in name, as they have long been in fact.
"I shall leave you to your thoughts," says Nevins, in parting. He walks to the entrance of the hotel with Trueman. When his friend departs he returns to his room.
Three of the Committee of Forty are awaiting him. They have come for a short consultation. At the convention they are to be the trusted lieutenants of Nevins.
There is no money to be distributed; no patronage to be pledged for the support of delegates. The preliminary arrangements of battle are strangely dissimilar to those of any preceding convention that has been held in this country for half a century.
The magnitude of the cause that brought forth the Democracy in the days of Jefferson, and the Republican party in the days of Lincoln, is again attracting true patriots; the cry of a people which has long been outraged is demanding to be heard; it has reached the ears of a faithful few who put country above price. It is of such material that the new party is composed.
A young and untried soldier was called by the sage of the Revolution of 1776 to take command of the Continental army. What is to prevent a repetition of our history, now that another crisis has to be faced? Of the committee there are few who do not feel assured that Trueman will be capable of fulfilling the duties of the office to which they seek to elevate him; they are not certain, however, that they can secure the nomination for him.
Trueman is hopeful; yet he cannot drive from his mind the rumors of disloyalty that are constantly brought to him.
In the minds of the Plutocrats it seems utterly impossible for Trueman to even obtain the vice-presidential nomination. It never occurs to them to regard him as a probable candidate for the higher office. Nevins, alone of all men, is confident of the result of the morrow.