(1964) The Man (10 page)

Since his invisible antenna of sensitivity had picked up and recorded her disappointment in him, Dilman had recently taken to reviewing and brooding over this relationship and his own life. Some weeks ago he had almost arrived at the decision to propose marriage, and to the devil with the consequences, if any. After all, he had asked himself in a practical way, how could he any longer be hurt? But then he had been sidetracked by his activity, and sham importance, in serving the Senate in the Vice-President’s place. And now, overnight, cruel Destiny had touched him. He had become the President of the United States. The personal choice ahead was clear-cut: should he be James Buchanan or Grover Cleveland? Buchanan had been the only unmarried President to serve his country. Cleveland had been the only Chief Executive to be married in the White House. When the choice was weighed thus, the scales tipped toward Buchanan. A showy wedding, like Cleveland’s in the Blue Room, before the world and the press, a marriage to a mulatto, a mulatto who might almost be mistaken for white, would merely serve to incense the enemies of his race. His uncertain position and precarious image, before a broken and divided country, would be worsened.

This had been his rationale last night, as he waited, the telephone receiver in his hand, to hear Wanda’s voice. His private decision, he had known, was neither courageous nor honest. It was merely expedient and political. It solved nothing, but simply traded off a personal problem to avoid a more fearsome one.

Gazing down at the receiver in his left hand, he had wondered why, under the circumstances, he was trying to speak to her at all, at least at this time. He had no idea what he could say to her, yet somehow, as President of the United States for more than three hours, he had to speak to someone before sleeping and then waking to the terrible fact, and the only one who might care about him, reassure him, was Wanda. As he waited for Wanda, his mind drifted to Mindy. His attitude toward the two of them was one and the same. He avoided taking a wife he needed for the same reason that he did not seek out a daughter he loved. He was black and still afraid.

“Hello, Doug.” She was calling down to him through a wire from upstairs, and yet she had never been farther away.

“Wanda, I wanted to—to say good night, before going to sleep.”

“Doug, it’s overwhelming, the whole thing. What does one say? Do I congratulate you? That sounds wrong.”

“You commiserate with me, and with the whole country.”

“No, don’t—don’t talk like that. It’s not true. That accident in Frankfurt was horrible. But it happened, Doug, those things happen. Remember how we once talked about what our families were doing the moment that they learned F. D. R. had died? And how they felt? They felt the world had come to an end, that they were dying, too, that there was no hope. Yet nothing happened to them, or to us. Life went on. Maybe differently than it might have had he lived, but not that differently. Well, Doug, T. C. was a good man, I’m sure, and popular, but he was no F. D. R., and neither was MacPherson. I know you’ll do as well as or better than either. No one is born to be the only one to be President. Thousands of men could be President just as well as the one who fought to get the office. If it had to be someone else, I think it could have been no one better than you.”

“Wanda, don’t—you know me too well for that—you know my weaknesses—”

“Everyone has weaknesses, Doug. Be sensible. Stand off and look around. Lincoln had weaknesses, and T. C. had too many to count, and probably dozens we couldn’t see to count. Of course you have weaknesses, but you’re strong enough to handle the job. Don’t discount your strengths. I can’t forget what you refuse to remember. With the kind of background you had, all that poverty, how did you get through the university and then law school? How did you get elected to the House of Representatives four times, and then get into the Senate, and even become its presiding officer? It took
something
. Doug, it took very much. I know you, maybe as well as anyone knows you, maybe better, and I am positive the whole country—once they get over the shock of the—of T. C.’s death—they’ll see you for what you are, and they’ll be proud of you.”

“Wanda, Wanda—you’re doing your best, I know—I appreciate it—but, Wanda, I’m black—tomorrow morning 230 million Americans are going to wake up and find their President, one they didn’t elect, is black.”

“That’s true, Doug. . . . Maybe it’ll be a good thing for them, for the country.”

“Maybe, but—will they think so?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know what they’ll think and neither do you. I only know what I think. If you go at this as you’ve gone at everything before, with determination, honesty, learning what you have to learn, acting as you believe best, it will be all right. I’m sure it will work itself out.”

“You—you sound less certain now, Wanda.”

“Do I? I didn’t mean to. I guess I’m just concerned about you.”

“What do you mean? Tell me exactly what you mean.”

“I mean—please don’t take it wrong, Doug—we know each other too well for that—but—I mean it would be bad, hurtful, if you started off, went into the White House, feeling you don’t belong, feeling you are less than you should be, feeling that way because—because you are colored. Don’t misunderstand me, Doug, but—”

“I understand you very well. I’ll try not to be like that. I’ll try hard, but—you’re right, I guess—I am afraid. . . . I’m also afraid for us. That’s on my mind, too. I don’t know what the demands or the expectations of the office are, except what I’ve seen and read. I don’t know what it is really like in there. I want to see you, speak to you, more than ever. I—I just don’t know—will they let me?”

“Doug, nobody owns you. You don’t have to wait for anyone to let you do anything, I mean in your personal life.”

“You’re right, Wanda.”

“It’s late, dear. You’d better get some sleep. I—I’ll be here. You call me when you can, anytime, I’ll be here.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Anytime. . . . Now sleep, dearest, and know we are all with you. Good night, Doug.”

“Good night, Wanda, good night.”

After hanging up, he had tried to analyze their talk. She had offered him encouragement, and her language had been warm, and yet, toward the end especially, he had sensed her remoteness. Still, he had thought, as he reached to turn off the bed lamp and then pushed his fatigued body beneath the blanket, she was for him and with him, no matter how disappointed she might be in him, and that was comforting, that was something; and then he had felt drowsiness, and then he had slept.

He finished knotting his knit tie, pulled on the coat of his charcoal suit, and consulted his wristwatch. He was afraid the journey his mind had taken to the events of last night, to the five years with Wanda, had consumed an hour of time. He was amazed and pleased to see that only six minutes had passed. It occurred to him that he had made a discovery no scientist had made before him. He had found what traveled faster than the speed of light: memory. The trouble was, no matter how fast it traveled, memory never stopped.

Determined to retreat no more from the unknown present into the more pleasant past, he left the bedroom and walked briskly into the living room. Lou Agajanian was seated in a chair, under the arch leading into the entry hall, smoking a cigarette. Immediately, the head of the White House Detail leaped to his feet in a pose of civilian attention.

“Mr. President,” he said, “the boss—I mean, Mr. Gaynor, he went off to catch a wink of sleep. Another agent, Mr. Prentiss, came in to spell him. He’s in the kitchen, at the rear service door.”

“Fine, fine.” Dilman indicated the chair. “Please relax, Mr. Agajanian.”

The Chief of the White House Secret Service Detail remained standing while Dilman entered the small dining room, which overlooked the street. He noticed that instead of his usual yellow breakfast mat and plain pottery dishes, Crystal had set the table with the formal white tablecloth and decorated dishes from the good set. Obviously, for her, this was an Occasion. Amused, he called off toward the kitchen, “Let’s go, Crystal, I’m here!”

As he sat down, Crystal rushed in and placed his orange juice before him. “Eggs an’ bacon comin’, Mr. President!”

Before picking up the orange juice, he studied the messages on slips of paper lying before the telephone: his son Julian had phoned from Trafford University (“Will call you back”); his Senate secretary, Diane Fuller, had phoned from the Old Senate Office Building (“Has to go out on your business, will call you back”); Secretary of State Eaton had phoned from his house (“To inquire how you are”); press secretary Tim Flannery (“Please set aside time for him early today”); Governor Wayne Talley (“Will call back shortly”). Those were the messages. He guessed that there might have been hundreds more, except that his phone number was unlisted, known only to a select handful of persons.

Drinking down the unsweetened orange juice, grimacing at the liquid’s bite, he reached over and brought the pile of newspapers before him. There were five to which he subscribed, two New York City dailies, and three Washington, D.C., newspapers, one of the latter a Negro press publication.

Quickly he examined the headlines streaming across each front page. The sensational New York newspaper read:

NATION GASPS! A NEGRO IS PRESIDENT OF THE USA!

The moderate New York newspaper read:

SENATOR DOUGLASS DILMAN SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT LAST NIGHT: FIRST NEGRO TO ACHIEVE COUNTRY’S HIGHEST OFFICE

The pro-administration Washington newspaper read:

CONGRESS AND VOTERS RALLY TO SUPPORT SENATOR DOUGLASS DILMAN

The pro-segregationist, Zeke Miller Washington newspaper read:

NEGRO SENATOR MADE CHIEF EXECUTIVE BY FLUKE; JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEETS TO DEBATE CONSTITUTIONALITY; CITIZENS PROTEST “UNFAIR” RULE OF MAJORITY BY MINORITY; REPRESENTATIVE MILLER PREDICTS “DISSENSION, DISUNITY, VIOLENCE”

The Negro Washington newspaper read:

HALLELUJAH! EQUAL RIGHTS AT LAST! COLORED PRESIDENT OF SENATE BECOMES PRESIDENT OF US ALL! WORLD APPLAUDS TRUE DEMOCRACY!

Several things were evident at once. To no one would he be simply a public servant who, by the law of succession, had become President of the United States. To both sides, and the middle, too, he would be the “Negro” who had become President. To the press of his own race he was the colored man, the black Moses, who had come to lead his people out of bondage and save them. To the press of the enemies of his race, as represented by Congressman Zeke Miller’s newspaper chain, he was a black and ugly thing pulled out from under a rock to wreak vengeance on the magnolia-scented South, to destroy the Grand Republic by enforcing equality between black godless brutes and white Christian human beings, to enforce his nigger ideas on their chaste daughters. To the sensational press he was a zoo object, a freak, for the time a story and circulation builder, who could be contended with seriously later. To the press of his Party he was still a senator, to be rallied around until the Party line toward him could be straightened out. To the moderate, conservative, thoughtful press he was—he reached for the respected and balanced New York daily again and reread its headline—the first Negro to achieve the country’s highest office.

Douglass Dilman considered this headline. It was true, and it was fair. But how many others, black or white, would be this reasonable? Slowly his eyes went down the columns of news datelined Washington, D.C. It was all solid reportage of his being sworn in, of the tragedy in Frankfurt that had led to his being sworn in, backed up by full quotations from Tim Flannery’s release explaining the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. At the bottom of the lead column was a box containing the suggestion that the reader turn to the main editorial on page sixteen.

Dilman put down his fork and knife, took up the New York newspaper, turned to page sixteen, folded it back and then in half. Immediately he found the main editorial headed T
HE
N
EW
M
AN IN THE
W
HITE
H
OUSE
, and then he settled in his chair to read what followed:

At 10:35 last night (EDT), a new, eligible American male was sworn in as President of the United States, to succeed a popular predecessor who died before fulfilling his full four-year term. In itself, this sudden changing of the guard was neither historic nor unusual. It has happened eight times before in our history. But last night, for the first time, there was a difference.

When Presidents Harrison, Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy died in office, their unexpired terms were filled out by men who had been their campaign running mates, by men second in line of succession, by men who had appeared beside them before the electorate, and by men of their own race and color. While public and Congressional acceptance of a second choice, a substitute President, was not always simple and smooth—as witness Andrew Johnson’s troubles when he succeeded Abraham Lincoln in 1865—at least the transitions were familiar enough to cause no national unrest or uneasiness.

However, the overnight accession of Senator Douglass Dilman, to fill the unexpired term of his popular predecessor, presents numerous problems which are deserving of thoughtful consideration. For the first time in our history, not the President’s running mate and campaign colleague, not his second-in-command, not his Vice-President, has taken over his vacant seat, but a relative outsider. For the first time, a senator and not a Vice-President, a legislative officer chosen by his Party colleagues and not the voters, has succeeded to the high office. And, for the first time, let it be stated plainly, a colored man, a member of the Negro race, has been catapulted into top command by an accident of life and a hitherto unused provision of law.

There is no reason why, in our view, a Negro should not be President of the United States. Were the country educated for him, prepared for him, were they to vote for him spontaneously and elect him to the high office, it would be a significant moment in our history and in world history. All men of good will and good heart have worked toward that moment, and hoped for that moment to come. Yet, unfortunately, this schizophrenic land of liberty is still groping its way toward equality. It still disfranchises Negroes, it bars them from gainful employment, it keeps them from decent housing, schooling, public accommodations. We still live in an era of growth as a nation—we are making our first toddling steps from uneasy tolerance and decency toward full equality—and so we still dwell in an era of constant falls and bruises.