"Eric Flint - TOG 02 - 1824, The Arkansas War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

тАЬYes, sir. The Red River canтАЩt serve, not with at least a hundred and fifty miles of it clogged up with
fallen trees. The Great Raft, they call it.тАЭ

тАЬAnd Driscol, being a very experienced soldier, knows that perfectly well.тАЭ

тАЬYes, sir.тАЭ

тАЬSo he designed his fortifications and lines of defenseтАФhis version of WellingtonтАЩs Lines of Torres
Vedras in the Peninsular WarтАФin such a way as to channel any attacker up the river.тАЭ

тАЬYes, sir. His lines are brilliantly designed, too. Far better than I would have thought, to be honest. I
think he must be getting advice from somewhere. Driscol was a sergeant in NapoleonтАЩs army, not an
officer. And the only sight he would have ever gotten of WellingtonтАЩs defenses would have been from a
distance. Even with his huge army, Massena never made any serious attempt on Torres Vedras.тАЭ

тАЬHow do you mean, тАШbrilliantly designedтАЩ?тАЭ asked Adams.

The general turned to face him. тАЬConsider the problem he faces. Even with the recent flood of
immigrants coming from the freedmen communities, added to the constant influx of runaway slaves and
the settlers sponsored by the American Colonization Society, there still canтАЩt be more than some tens of
thousands of negroes in that Arkansas Chiefdom, as the Confederates call their respective states.
Certainly not more than eighty thousand, I shouldnтАЩt think. Add to that perhaps ten thousand whites by
now, all told.тАЭ

тАЬThatmany?тАЭ The presidentтАЩs eyebrows were lifted. тАЬWhites, I mean. I wouldnтАЩt have thoughtтАжтАЭ

He glanced at Adams. тАЬAgain, a smile. Why?тАЭ

Adams had also resumed his seat. Now he leaned his short, heavy frame back into it. тАЬI canтАЩt say IтАЩm
surprised, Mr. President. Notevery white man in America shares CalhounтАЩs attitudes.тАЭ

Nor do most of them come from Virginia gentry, as you do.But he left that unsaid, of course. тАЬThere
are the missionaries, first of all. A very heavy presence of Quakers, naturally, and they tend to move in
entire families. Then, a fair numberтАФcall it a heavy sprinklingтАФof young radicals. Abolitionists, theyтАЩre
starting to call themselves.тАЭ

Monroe made a face. For all the presidentтАЩs humane nature, which Adams would be the first to allow,
the man was still the product of his upbringing. Though a slave-owner himself, MonroeтАФlike his close
friends and predecessors Thomas Jefferson and James MadisonтАФconsidered the institution of slavery
problematic at best, and probably an outright evil. Still, any drastic and rapid abolition of slavery was
considered impossible, and the attempt to do it, economically and socially disastrous.

Adams, a New Englander, thought it was probably impossible also, for political reasons. But he would
have accepted the economic and social disasters abolition might bring, for the sake of the greater political
disaster they would avert. More and more, he was becoming convinced that if slavery festered for too
long, it would produce, in the end, one of the most horrible episodes of bloodshed any nation had ever
endured. And would steadily undermine the foundations of the republic before it got there.

But there was no point reopening that debate here and now, so Adams continued to the next point.