But the colonel
insisted that so also would the victims of the system pass away, who,
being already in existence, were certainly entitled to as much
consideration as generations yet unborn; it was hardly fair to
sacrifice them to a mere punctilio. The colonel had reached the
conviction that the regenerative forces of education and
enlightenment, in order to have any effect in his generation, must be
reinforced by some positive legislative or executive action, or else
the untrammelled forces of graft and greed would override them; and he
was human enough, at this stage of his career to wish to see the
result of his labours, or at least a promise of result.
The colonel's papers were forwarded to the proper place, whence they
were referred from official to official, and from department to
department. That it might take some time to set in motion the
machinery necessary to reach the evil, the colonel knew very well, and
hence was not impatient at any reasonable delay. Had he known that his
presentation had created a sensation in the highest quarter, but that
owing to the exigencies of national politics it was not deemed wise,
at that time, to do anything which seemed like an invasion of State
rights or savoured of sectionalism, he might not have been so serenely
confident of the outcome. Nor had Fetters known as much, would he have
done the one thing which encouraged the colonel more than anything
else. Caxton received a message one day from Judge Bullard,
representing Fetters, in which Fetters made the offer that if Colonel
French would stop his agitation on the labour laws, and withdraw any
papers he had filed, and promise to drop the whole matter, he would
release Bud Johnson.
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