John had been four months from home. As he drew near he saw his wife standing in the doorway, looking down the road, watching for his coming. When she saw him she held high their infant son, now almost two months old.
“* * * And how have you been?”
“As happy as were possible with you away. What do you think of the boy? Stop kissing me and look at him.”
“What a fine little fellow, a soul entrusted to our keeping. How can a woman endure to live without being a mother? See how he smiles into our faces; not that he knows us; but he looks through the gates of heaven and takes us for angels. Son, I guess your mother thinks you know me, but your only thoughts are of heaven and your stomach. In an instinctive way he likes you about; he connects you with the joy of living.”
“John! John! He thinks of you. He knows his father. Look how he opens wide his eyes and smiles into your face. I do believe he approves of his father—the little darling! Oh, you little deserter; you would leave your mother for him and after what he has said. That’s [pg 275] it; hold out your arms pleading: ‘Father take me in your strong arms; I will come back to mother when I am hungry.’ Oh, what a wonderful boy! Just two months old! Just like his father!”
“Oh wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother.”
The day following his return John rode over into Powell’s Valley, where Robert Marshall, who was substituting for him, was conducting a series of meetings. The people of the district liked Mr. Marshall, but told John that no one could ever fill his place.
He was also told that the people of Lincoln county, which at that time embraced nearly a fifth of Kentucky, were going to send him as delegate to the Constitutional Convention, which was to assemble at Danville on April 2, 1792, to draft the constitution for the new state, which was to be admitted into the Union on June 1, 1792.
At first he demurred; but when not only his neighbors but delegations from distant points in the county came to see him and insisted, he consented; giving all to understand that he would only run as an anti-slavery candidate; as did also Rev. David Rice and James Crawford, two other Presbyterian preacher candidates.
They were elected in December, 1791; and when the convention assembled quickly ascertained that the only real controversy was upon the issue of slavery or no-slavery for the new state.