Chapter 89

“What happens now?” I asked.

“There will be a trial by the Senate. If convicted, he will be removed from office. If not, he will limp through his remaining term and pass into history.”

“It strikes me this rapid succession of men claiming the chieftaincy is nothing short of madness. One president no sooner sets his course than another replaces him with a different destination in mind. Yet, perhaps that is your salvation, as well. It means the poor ones pass through the system and are expelled just as quickly.”

“You make them sound like human excrement.” James paused a moment. “Perhaps that is an apt description for some of them.”

Another time, he brought confirmation that Alaska had, indeed, been purchased from the Russian Tsar for about two copper pennies an acre. When he mused aloud about what Washington would do with all that frozen land, I responded with the truth: “They will send settlers to kill off or crowd out the native tribes.”