Thomas Norton

“ Norton broke into a bitter, angry laugh:
"Are you demanding that I marry you?"
"I'm not quite that big a fool. No. Your laws forbid it. All right—there are higher laws than yours. The law that drew you to me in this room twenty years ago, in spite of all your fears and your prejudices"—she paused and her eyes glowed in the shadows—"I gave you my soul and body then——"
"Gifts I never sought——"
"Yet you took them and I'm here a part of your life. What are you going to do with me? I'm not the negro race. I'm just a woman who loves you and asks that you treat her fairly." ”

“ Norton rose at last to advocate its adoption as the one issue of the campaign, and again pandemonium broke loose—now they knew that he had written it! They suspected it from the first. Instantly his name was on a thousand lips in a shout that rent the air.
He stood with his tall figure drawn to its full height, his face unearthly pale, wreathed in its heavy shock of iron-gray hair and waited, without recognizing the tumult, until the last shout had died away. ”

“ Norton quietly removed his disguise, folded it neatly, took off his saddle, placed the robe between the folds of the blanket and mounted his horse.
The old Governor waved to him:
"My love to the little mother and that boy, Tom, that you've named for me!"
"Yes, Governor—good night."
The tall figure on horseback melted into the shadows and in a moment the buggy was spinning over the glistening, moonlit track of the turnpike.
When they reached the first street lamps on the edge of town, the old man peered curiously at the girl by his side.
"You drive well, young woman," he said slowly. ”

“ She had moved beyond the table in her last desperate cry and Norton followed with a look of tenderness:
"Nonsense," he cried persuasively, "you're but a child yourself. You can go abroad where no such problem of white and black race exists. You can marry there and be happy in your home and little ones, if God shall give them!"
She turned on him savagely:
"Well, God shall not give them! I'll see to that! I'm young, but I'm not a fool. I know something of the laws of life. I know that Tom is not like you"—she turned and pointed to the portrait on the wall—"he is like his great-grandfather! ”

“ Tom interrupted.
Norton turned deadly pale, recovered himself and began in a low voice:
"You see, boy, I grew up under the old régime. Like a lot of other fellows with whom I ran, I drank, gambled and played the devil—you know what that meant in those days——"
"No, I don't," the boy interrupted. "That's just what I don't know. I belong to a new generation. And you've made a sort of exception of me even among the men of to-day. You taught me to keep away from women. I learned the lesson. I formed clean habits, and so I don't know just what you mean by that. ”

“ Norton spoke with persuasive tenderness:
"You mustn't think of such madness! I'll send you abroad at once and you can begin life over again——"
Helen suddenly snatched the chair to which she had been holding out of her way and faced Norton with flaming eyes:
"I don't want to be an exile! I've been alone all my miserable orphan life! I don't want to go abroad and die among strangers! I've just begun to live since I came here! I love the South—it's mine—I feel it—I know it! I love its blue skies and its fields—I love its people—they are mine! ”

“ Norton knew from the first that there could be no hope of success in such a campaign as he had planned except in the single iron will of a leader who would lead and whose voice lifted in impassioned appeal direct to the white race in every county of the state could rouse them to resistless enthusiasm.
The man who undertook this work must burn the bridges behind him, ask nothing for himself and take his life daily in his hands. ”

“ The years brought their healing to wounded hearts. Tom Norton refused to leave his old home. He came of a breed of men who had never known how to quit. He faced the world and with grim determination took up the work for the Republic which his father had begun.
With tireless voice his paper pleads for the purity of the race. Its circulation steadily increases and its influence deepens and widens. ”

“ His wife (presumably his second wife) at that time was reprieved, as being with child. Another John Norton received a pardon in December 1601 for harbouring Thomas Palliser, a seminary priest. The third son, Edmund Norton of Clowbeck, Yorkshire, is supposed to have died in 1610. ”

“ Norton had reached the door when he suddenly turned, the momentary humor of his play with the [Pg 354] negro gone from his sombre face, the tragedy of a life speaking in every tone as he slowly said:
"Fight it out! It's the only thing to do—fight it out!"
Andy stared at the retreating figure dazed by the violence of passion with which his master had answered, wondering vaguely what could be the meaning of the threat behind his last words. ”

“ When the laughter had died away Norton asked in good-natured tones:
"You say I can depend on you, Andy?"
"Dat yer kin, sah—every day in the year—you'se de bes frien' I ebber had in de world, sah."
"Then I want to ask you a question."
"Yassah, I tells yer anything I know, sah."
"I'm just a little worried about Tom. He's too young to get married. Do you think he's been really making love to Miss Helen?"
Norton watched the negro keenly. He knew that a boy would easily trust his secrets to such a servant, and that his sense of loyalty to the young would be strong. ”

“ A small man could, yes—but you? I appeal to the best that's in you, to the spark of God that's in every human soul——"
Norton was deeply touched, far more than he dreamed any word from the man he hated could ever stir him. The Governor saw his hesitation and pressed his cause:
"I might say many things honestly in justification of my course in politics; but the time has not come. When passions have cooled and we can look the stirring events of these years squarely in the face—there'll be two sides to this question, major, as there are two sides to all questions. ”

“ Andy glanced up from his tray and jumped in alarm:
"Yassah, dat's so, sah—in dese parts sho, sah!" he ended his speech by a good-natured laugh at the expense of the country that allowed itself to be thus intimidated.
Norton lifted the gleaming piece of steel and looked at it thoughtfully:
"Back of every ballot a gun and the red blood of the man who holds it! No freeman ever yet voted away his right to a revolution——"
"Yassah—dat's what I tells dem niggers—you gwine ter giv 'em er dose er de revolution——"
"Well, it's done now and I've no more use for this thing—thank God!" ”

“ I see no fault committed which I have not committed myself.” [122] This milder and more genial spirit increased constantly as Norton grew older, until it served at last only to make his high-bred nature more attractive.
He was born in Cambridge, November 16, 1827, and died in the very house where he was born, October 21, 1908. He was descended, like several other New England authors, from a line of Puritan clergymen. He was the son of Professor Andrews Norton, of Harvard University, who was descended from the Rev. John Norton, born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1651. ”

“ The boy's eager young face just in front of him when he made his speech that day had been an inspiration. It had beamed with pride and admiration, and when [Pg 223] his father's name rang from every lip in the great shout that shook the building Tom's eyes had filled with tears.
Norton was seated at his typewriter, which he had moved to his room, writing his final instructions. The last lines he put in caps:
"Under no conceivable circumstances annoy me with anything that happens at home, unless a matter of immediate life and death, anything else can wait until my return." ”

“ He crossed to the writing desk, laid the revolver on [Pg 352] its top and walked to the lounge his face set with a look of brooding intensity:
"Bah! The big battles are all fought inside, Andy! There's where the brave die and cowards run—inside——"
"Yassah!—I got de stuff right here fer de inside, sah!" he held up the decanter with a grin.
"From to-night my work outside is done," Norton went on moodily. "And I'm going to be free—free! I'm no longer afraid of one of my servants——"
He dropped into a seat and closed his fists with a gesture of intense emotion. ”

“ He immediately sought the Speaker, who made no effort to conceal the contempt in which he held the trembling petitioner.
"I've come to you, Major Norton," he began falteringly, "in the darkest hour of my life. I've come because I know that you are a brave and generous man. I appeal to your generosity. I've made mistakes in my administration. But I ask you to remember that [Pg 103] few men in my place could have done better. I was set to make bricks without straw. I was told to make water run up hill and set at naught the law of gravitation. ”

“ They accordingly set up their standards, declaring their intent was to restore the ancient Religion, to get the succession of the crown firmly settled, and to prevent the destruction of the ancient nobility, &c. Their common banner (on which was displayed the cross, together with the five wounds of Christ) was borne by an ancient gentleman, Richard Norton, Esquire, who, with his sons, (among whom, Christopher, Marmaduke, and Thomas, are expressly named by Camden,) distinguished himself on this occasion. Having entered Durham, they tore the Bible, &c. ”

“ I have related especially this one touching tale of friendship, because it was the climax of them all, and the best illustration of the essential Americanism of Norton’s career.
He indeed afforded a peculiar and almost unique instance in New England, not merely of a cultivated man who makes his home for life in the house where he was born, but of one who has recognized for life the peculiar associations of his boyhood and has found them still the best. ”

“ Graduating at Harvard in 1846, and taking a fair rank at graduation, he was soon after sent into a Boston counting-house to gain a knowledge of the East India trade. In 1849 he went as supercargo on a merchant ship bound for India, in which country he traveled extensively, and returned home through Europe in 1851. There are few more interesting studies in the development of literary individuality than are to be found in the successive works bearing Norton’s name, as one looks through the list of them in the Harvard Library. ”

“ He was a nephew of Sir Norton Knatchbull, knight, of Mersham Hatch, Kent, who was sheriff of Kent in 1608, M.P. for Hythe in 1609, and founder of the free school at Ashford. The elder Sir Norton ‘was,’ says Philipot, in his ‘Visitation of the County of Kent,’ ‘a person who, for his favour and love to learning and antiquities in times when they are both fallen under such cheapness and contempt, cannot be mentioned without an equivalent to so just a merit.’ Sir Norton the younger succeeded to the family mansion and estate at Mersham Hatch upon his uncle's death in 1636. ”

“ Yer know I wouldn't er tried ter steal er glimpse of it ef I'd knowed ye wuz gwine ter show it ter me. I allers is er gemman, sah!"
Norton handed him the paper:
"I taught you to read and write, Andy. You can do me a little service to-night—read that!"
"Yassah—yassah," he answered, pompously, adjusting his coat and vest. He held the paper up before him, struck it lightly with the back of his hand and cleared his throat:
"Me an' you has bin writin' fer de newspapers now 'bout fifteen years—yassah"—he paused and hurriedly read the document. "Dis yo' will, sah? ”

“ In the Charles Eliot Norton number of the “Harvard Graduates’ Magazine” commemorating his eightieth birthday, Professor Palmer, with that singular felicity which characterizes him, says of Norton: “He has been an epitome of the world’s best thought brought to our own doors and opened for our daily use.” Edith [134] Wharton with equal felicity writes from Norton’s well-known dwelling at Ashfield, whose very name, “High Pasture,” gives a signal for what follows:—
“Come up—come up ”

“ Already the man hunters were showing signs of restlessness.
“That settles it,” declared one. “The feller we're after either kept up on the high places, or else he dropped over the divide the other way. I think some of us better keep on down the road, and the others go back up to the Deacon's Trail, cross the ridge, and take down the other cañon.”
“Good! That's right!” came a chorus of approval, as the party remounted.
“See you up at Shingle,” Specimen Jones bawled over his shoulder. “If you fellers get there before I do, Josh, make yourselves at home in my cabin. ”

“ The prospector rode with his head down, like one disgraced, declining to converse. Neither Barnes, his daughter, nor Tom ventured questions after the first rebuff. Behind them, gloating to himself, came Specimen Jones. The strain and anxiety were over for some of them; for others merely in abeyance. It was not until they came to the turn of the Lady Edith Trail that the prospector pulled his horse to a halt and handed Barnes the folded paper he took from his pocket. ”

“ To the end of his life Norton wrote long letters to ‘The Times’ on his favourite themes of social reform, education, and colonial affairs. He was no brilliant writer nor speaker, and was reckoned by political colleagues to be tenacious and outspoken to the verge of obstinacy and bluntness, but his views were enlightened, generous, and far-seeing, and they influenced the progress of public opinion. A skilled musician and a competent art critic, Norton died at Hams Hall on 28 March 1905, and was buried in the family vault in Lea Marston Church. ”