He listened a few seconds, and apparently interrupted Talley.
“No, hold your horses, Governor. I repeat that if we do something, it has to be under the law of the land. Now, Hankins hasn’t worked the wording out yet-I think we’ll have that in a day or two-but it is his intent to submit a revised-or new-succession bill at once. The idea would be that if this kind of tragedy ever took place again, the successor to the Presidency would merely act as a caretaker, a temporary Acting President, until the Electoral College could be reconvened and a full-time President and Vice-President be elected to finish out the unexpired term. As for our present situation, Hankins wants-and I think I subscribe to this-a retroactive clause stating that in order to preserve the present succession to the Presidency, as set up in 1947, so that this can’t be tampered with politically, those next in line to the office cannot be removed without a two-thirds consent vote of the Senate. In short, Secretary of State Eaton could not be removed, fired, willy-nilly. Neither could Secretary of the Treasury Moody or Attorney General Kemmler, the next two in line, be removed without our approval. I think-”
Abruptly he halted, his white-maned head cocked sideways, and then he resumed.
“No, I don’t know if it is constitutional. But it can serve us until it is tested. I haven’t the vaguest idea if Dilman would sign it or veto it-I don’t know that man at all, Governor, no one does-but if he has good faith, I think he will see the reasonableness and come along. I think this bill can be moved through to his desk quietly, without too much ballyhoo and fuss. I’m the last one to want it to appear that we are trying to manacle Dilman because of his race. As a matter of fact, Governor, I am approaching this New Succession Bill of Hankins’ not as something that may serve us only now, in this emergency, but as something that can serve us in the future, so that other successors cannot recklessly unseat their potential heirs and pack the Cabinet with persons of their own race or creed or party, or with incompetents who happen to be sycophants or relatives. In fact, I’m trotting over to the Hill now to see if I can assist Hankins with the language. I don’t want it to be a vindictive measure, but one that can be useful in the present and future. What’s that, Governor? Arthur Eaton wants to say-all right, put him on.”
With the second mention by her father of Secretary of State Arthur Eaton’s name, Sally Watson had become entirely alert and attentive. Now that her father was listening to Eaton, she bent forward, hoping to hear Eaton’s seductive voice on the phone, but it was impossible to hear a thing at this distance across the table.
At last she shut off the television set, rose, and noiselessly began to gather the breakfast dishes from the table. Normally, on maid’s day off, she and her stepmother did the dishes. But her stepmother had gone early to a Daughters of the Confederacy breakfast, and Sally lacked the patience to do this menial work by herself.
She emptied the leftovers into the garbage disposal, and waited for her father to finish.
Senator Watson was speaking into the telephone. “I concur, Arthur. I subscribe to everything you say. It will be judicious. I shall lend my weight to that. I will keep you closely informed… Let me add, I don’t seem to have had time up to now to tell you how sorry I am about the tragedy. I wasn’t as close to T. C. as you, but I respected him. It is a horrendous blow to the country. Nevertheless, the realities of life. We live with them. Let’s do our best… Good luck today, Arthur, good luck to both of us.”
From where she stood quietly at the sink behind him, Sally watched her father put away the telephone, pull free his napkin, wipe his mouth, and stand up. He appeared too self-absorbed to notice her. Yet she waited, eager to speak to one who had just spoken to Arthur Eaton.
“Dad-”
“Oh, hello, baby. I thought you were dressing. I’ve got to rush off. I’m late already.”
“Dad, I was listening to everything. It’s all very dangerous, isn’t it?”
He studied her for a moment. “Well, dangerous isn’t precisely the word. Nothing as ominous as that. Any new President creates certain problems for everyone, but a new one of Dilman’s race, in times like this, well, the problems are definitely heightened.”
Sally ran her fingers through her thick blond hair. “It gives me the chills to think how close Arthur Eaton came to being the President. Wouldn’t that have been wonderful?”
Hoyt Watson disappeared into the next room a moment, and reappeared with his hat and birch cane. “Well,” he said, “with Eaton we’d have had an easier time of it, no question. Good man, Eaton.”
Sally was not satisfied. “Do you think Arthur Eaton could still become President?”
Thoughtfully Hoyt Watson tapped his cane on the kitchen linoleum. “Unlikely, Sally. If you understand what I was discussing with Talley, you know what is going on.”
“I have an idea.”
“Representative Miller likes to imagine that he is John C. Calhoun. It was Calhoun, you remember, who used to remark that it was false to believe that all men are born free and equal. The assumption, he used to say, was based upon facts contrary to universal observation. Well, now, time has passed Calhoun by, and the time and the law say all men are free and equal, no matter what the realities. In short, no matter how nostalgic I may be for the past, I’ve founded my entire career on progress and observing the law. Representative Zeke Miller thinks otherwise, and where once he might have had an overflow auditorium to applaud and support his sentiments, he will today find the auditorium only one-third filled. He wants to prevent Dilman from becoming President. He is acting out a dream of the past. He won’t succeed in ousting Dilman simply because Dilman is black, and in getting Eaton elected because he is white. Dilman is our President, improbable as that is to conceive.”
“What about the new law you were discussing?”
“Well, even if we get it, that won’t change things very much, not in actuality. It will only prevent Dilman from discharging Eaton, Moody, Kemmler, the rest of T. C.’s Cabinet. Our idea is that we want this Cabinet so that Dilman is encouraged to follow T. C.’s ideas and the Party’s wishes. Then, as a show of goodwill on our part, we’ve agreed not to elect either a new Speaker of the House or a President pro tempore of the Senate, so that no one precedes the succession line of T. C.’s Cabinet for the rest of the unexpired term. Instead, our House and Senate members will rotate the job of presiding on an alphabetical, weekly basis. That would be in the bill, too.”
“If the law passes, it would make Arthur Eaton the President-I mean, should something happen to Dilman, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, of course,” said Hoyt Watson. “But nothing’s going to happen to Dilman. We’ve had all the accidents we’re going to have, and Dilman is a young man, Arthur Eaton’s age, and strong as a bull, I’m sure.” Watson paused, and eyed his daughter keenly. “Why this sudden interest in politics, Sally? This is more than I’ve heard from you in a year. I’m gratified.”
Sally moved toward her father, eased his hat from his hand, and placed it on his head. “I’m not interested in politics especially, Dad. I’m interested in Arthur Eaton. I have enormous admiration for him. I’d like to see him the First Man in the country-after you, of course.”
Hoyt Watson chuckled. “You can forget about your father. He has everything he wants out of life. As to Eaton-” He looked down at her, and then he said, “Your interest in our Secretary of State wouldn’t be personal, would it? I’m just remembering. I thought I saw you spending an inordinate amount of time with him at Allan Noyes’s party.”