Summary

Chapter 5 – The following morning, Victor eats breakfast alone in the lobby of his hotel while reading a newspaper article about a current national controversy known as the “Bastlich hearings”: a woman (identified only as “Bastlich”) is nominated to chair the president’s Securities and Exchange Commission. Bastlich once wrote a paper arguing for the punishment of companies that trade in plantation profits. While she claims she will fulfill the duties of her job fairly, a number of politicians from both southern and northern states are concerned that she will attempt, through her position, to eliminate slavery. The unnamed president is identified as a centrist – “as you had to be to get to be president (22) – on the “Old Question” of whether slavery should be outlawed but is refusing to withdraw the woman’s nomination. Victor notes that this is hardly a...