She had scored her point, and Hamilton sprang to his feet, his face as white as her petticoats.  “Madison’s treachery!” he exclaimed.  “It is true he comes near me but seldom this Congress.  I had attributed his coldness to temperament.  Can it be?  So many forces would operate.  There is much jealousy and ambition in him.  He can never lead my party.  Is he capable of deserting that he might lead another?  One expects that sort of thing of a Burr; but Madison—­I have thought him of an almost dazzling whiteness at times—­then I have had lightning glimpses of meaner depths.  He is easily influenced.  Virginia opposes me so bitterly!  Will he dare to continue to defy her?  Can he continue to rise if she combines against him?  Oh, God!  If he only had more iron in his soul!”

It was characteristic of him that he had forgotten his audience.  He was thinking aloud, his thought leaping from point to point as they sprang into the brilliant atmosphere of his mind; or using its rapid divining rod.  He threw back his head.  “I’ll not believe it till I have proof!” he exclaimed defiantly.  “Why, I should feel as if one of the foundations of the earth had given way.  Madison—­we have been like brothers.  I have confided deeply in him.  There is little in that Report of yesterday that I have not discussed with him a hundred times—­nothing but the ways and means, which I dared confide to no one.  He has always been in favour of assumption, of paying the whole debt.  It is understood that he is to support me in Congress.  I’ll hear no more.  Dry your tears.  You have accomplished your object with a woman’s wit.  I believe you did but shed those tears to enhance your loveliness, my Lady Godiva.”

XIX

The immediate consequences of Hamilton’s Report were a rise of fifty per cent in the securities of the bankrupt Confederation, and a bitter warfare in Congress.  All were agreed upon the propriety of paying the foreign loan, but the battle raged about every other point in turn.  One of the legacies of the old Congress was the principle of repudiating what it was not convenient to redeem, and the politicians of the country had insensibly fallen into the habit of assuming that they should start clear with the new government, and relegate the domestic debt to the limbo which held so many other resources best forgotten.  They were far from admitting the full measure of their inheritance, however, and opened the battle with a loud denouncement of the greedy speculator who had defrauded the impoverished soldier, to whose needs they had been indifferent hitherto.  Most of this feeling concentrated in the opposition, but many Federalists were so divided upon the question of discrimination that for a time the other great questions contained in the Report fell back.  Feeling became so bitter that those who supported the assignees were accused of speculation, and personalities were hot and blistering.