Krebs, of
Pennsylvania. There were many reasons which now made the
co-operation of that high-minded statesman essential to Mr.
Ratcliffe. The strongest of them was that the Pennsylvania
delegation in Congress was well disciplined and could be used
with peculiar advantage for purposes of "pressure." Ratcliffe's
success in his contest with the new President depended on the
amount of "pressure" he could employ. To keep himself in the
background, and to fling over the head of the raw Chief Magistrate
a web of intertwined influences, any one of which alone would be
useless, but which taken together were not to be broken through; to
revive the lost art of the Roman retiarius, who from a safe distance
threw his net over his adversary, before attacking with the dagger;
this was Ratcliffe's intention and towards this he had been
directing all his manipulation for weeks past. How much
bargaining and how many promises he found it necessary to make,
was known to himself alone. About this time Mrs. Lee was a little
surprised to find Mr. Gore speaking with entire confidence of
having Ratcliffe's support in his application for the Spanish
mission, for she had rather imagined that Gore was not a favourite
with Ratcliffe. She noticed too that Schneidekoupon had come
back again and spoke mysteriously of interviews with Ratcliffe; of
attempts to unite the interests of New York and Pennsylvania; and
his countenance took on a dark and dramatic expression as he
proclaimed that no sacrifice of the principle of protection should
be tolerated.
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