Party feeling ran high.
The President of the Union was a Virginian and a Republican; the Chief Justice was a Virginian and a Federalist.

Old friends looked askance, or crossed the road to avoid a meeting, and hot bloods went a-duelling.

The note of the time was Ambition; the noun most in use the name of Napoleon Buonaparte.

It seemed written across the firmament; to some in letters of light and to others in hell fire.

With that sign in the skies, men might shudder and turn to a private hearth, or they might give loosest rein to desire for Fame.