E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
The Silent Woman stood, pointing at him with herfinger
THE LIGHT IN
THE CLEARING
A Tale of the North Country
in the Time of Silas Wright
BY
IRVING BACHELLER
AUTHOR OF
EBEN HOLDEN, KEEPING UP WITH LIZZIE, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
ARTHUR I. KELLER.
—PROVERBS XX,27
1917
TO MY FRIEND
THOMAS R. PROCTOR, OF UTICA
LOVER OF THE TRUE IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY
WHOSE LIFE HAS BEEN A SHINING EXAMPLE TO ALL MEN OF WEALTH
HONORED GENTLEMAN AND PHILANTHROPIST
AT THE GATE OF THE LAND OF
WHICH I HAVE WRITTEN
DEDICATE THESE CHRONICLES OF THAT LAND
AND OF ITS GREAT HERO
FOREWORD
From the memoirs of one who knew Governor Wright and livedthrough many of the adventures herein described and whose lifeended full of honors early in the present century. It is understoodthat he chose the name Barton to signalize his affection for afriend well known in the land of which he was writing.
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE
The Light in the Clearing shone upon many things and mostly uponthose which, above all others, have impassioned and perpetuated theSpirit of America and which, just now, seem to me to be worthy ofattention. I believe that spirit to be the very candle of the Lordwhich, in this dark and windy night of time, has flickered so thatthe souls of the faithful have been afraid. But let us be of goodcheer. It is shining brighter as I write and, under God, I believeit shall, by and by, be seen and loved of all men.
One self-contained, Homeric figure, of the remote countryside inwhich I was born, had the true Spirit of Democracy and shed itslight abroad in the Senate of the United States and the Capitol atAlbany. He carried the candle of the Lord. It led him to a heightof self-forgetfulness achieved by only two others—Washingtonand Lincoln. Yet I have been surprised by the profound and generalignorance of this generation regarding the career of Silas Wright,of whom Whittier wrote these lines:
Portents at which the bravest stand aghast
The birth throes of a future strange and vast
Alarm the land. Yet thou so wise and strong
Suddenly summoned to the burial bed,
Lapped in its slumbers deep and ever long,
Hear'st not the tumult surging over head.
Who now shall rally Freedom's scattering host?
Who wear the mantle of the leader lost?"
The distinguished Senator who served at his side for many years,Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, has this to say of Silas Wright inhis Thirty Years' View:
"He refused cabinet appointments under his fast friend Van Burenand under Polk, whom he may be said to have elected. He refused aseat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States; herejected instantly the nomination of 1844 for Vice-President; herefused to be put in nomination for the Presidency. He spent thattime in declining office which others did in winning it. Theoffices he did accept, it might well be said, were thrust upon him.He was born grea