He learned early that the ten commandments have no bearing on politics and legislation, and was taught that part of valor which, basing itself on greed and cunning and fear, is called discretion, and consists in first running from an enemy and then hiding from pursuit.

Altogether, those eight years might have been less pernicious in their influence had Patrick Henry Hanway passed them with the chain gang, and he emerged therefrom, to cast his first vote, treacherous and plausible and boneless and false--as voracious as a pike and as much without a principle.
Patrick Henry Hanway did not follow in the precise footsteps of his sire.

He resolved to make his money by pulling and hauling at legislation; but the methods should be changed.

He would improve upon his father, and instead of pulling and hauling from the lobby, he would pull and haul from within.

The returns were surer; also it was easier to knead and mold and bake one's loaf of legislation as a member, with a seat in Senate or Assembly, than as some unassigned John Smith, who, with a handful of bribes and a heart full of cheap intrigue, must do his work from the corridor.