The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-10-16
WHOLE NO. $50.

" ~ TOI pity sake, LOT Snalnes sake, De
cause we are men born of women, and not saw
age beasts, many Of IA do not, and dare not
we would st0rn to use the full power which our
savage laws put into our hands. And he who
goes the farthest and does the worst, only uses,
within limits, the power that the law gives
him
ST. Clare had started up, and, a. his manner
was when excited was walking with hurried
steps up aud down the floor His fine face,
classic as that of Greek statue, seemed actu-
ally TO burn with the fervor of his feelings.
His large blue eyes flashed, and he gestured
with an unconscious eagerness. Miss Opheha
had never seen him in this mood before and
she sat perfectly silent
I'll declare to YOU said he, suddenly stop
ping before his COUSIN, f. it's no sort OF use 70
talk or to feel on this subject) but declare TO
you, there have been times when have thought,
if the whole country would sink, and hide all
this injustice and misery from the light would
willingly sink with it When have been trav-
cling up and down ON our boats, or about on
my collecting tours, and reflected that every
brutal, disgusting. mean. low-llyed fellow met,
was allowed by our laws to become absolute
dcspot Of ~ many men women, and children
rs he could cheat steal or gamble money
| enough to buy--when have seen such men in
actual ownership OF helpless children, of young
girls and women, ! have been ready to curse
my country-to curse the human race ~
Augustine Augustine =" said Miss Ophe-
LA I'm sure you've said enough. never in
my life heard anything like this, even at the
North
AT the North /" said St Clare, with a sud
den change of expression, and resuming some
thing of his habitual careless tone Pooh
No tkar, Coll cold 1aH
cool in everything You can't begin to curse
up hill and down as we can, when we get fair
lv ut it,"
We'll, but the question is, said Miss Ophe-
: @D's, .ssrs u }e,,Yre45 1be ,o,3sl,oa v-s'&B q
deuce Of question it is How came yoU in
this state of sin and misery? Wen, | shall
answer in the good old words you used to teach
me Sundays. | came so by ordinary genera
ton My servants were my fathers and, what
is more, my mothers; and now they are mine
they and their increase which bids fair TO be a
pretty considerable item My father, you
know, came first from New England, and he
| was inst such another man as your father
| regular old Roman-upright energetic, noble
minded, with an iron will. Your father settled
down in New England, to rule over rocks and
stones, and to force an existence out of Nature
and mine settled in Louisiana TO rule over men
and women, and force existence out of them
Ny mother said St Clare, getting up and
walking to a picture at the end of the room,
and gazing upward with face iervent with
veneraton, 4" she was dirinei Don't look at
me sol you know what mean She proba-
bly, was of mortal birth but as far as ever
could observe, there was no trace IT any human
weakness or error about her; and everybody
that lives to remember her whether bond or
free, servant acquaintance, relation, all say the
same Why, cousin that mother has been all
that has stood between me and utter unbelief
for years She was n direct embodiment and
| reconsideration of the New Testament--a living
| fact, to be accounted for, and to be accounted
| for in no other way than by its truth. Oh,
mother mother" said st. Clare, clasping his
hands in sort of transport and then suddenly
checking himself he came back, and seating
himself ON an ottoman by Miss Ophelia he
went on
INV brother and were twins and they say,
you know, that twins ought to resemble each
other; but we We're in all points a contrast
He had black, fiery eyes-coal-black hair-a
strong fine Roman profe-and a rich brown
complexion | had blue eyes, golden hair, a
Greek outline and fair complexion. He was
active aud Observing dreamy and inactive
He was generous to his friends and equals but
proud, dominant oyerbearlng to interiors and
utterly unmercilul 10 whatever yet itself up
against him. Faithful we both were, he from
pride and c0urage-l from a sort of abstract
ideality We loved each other about as boys
generally do-Of and on, and in general-he
was my fathers pet and my mothers
There was morbid sensitiyeness and acute
ness of feeling in me on all possible subjects of
which he and my father had no kind Of under
standing, and with which they could have no
possible sympathy But mother did and 80
when had quarrelled with Alfred, and father
looked sternly on me, | used to go off to moth
ers room, and sit by her. remember just how
she used to look with her pale cheeks her deep,
soft, serious eyes her white dress---she always
wore white and used to think of her when
ever read in Revelations about the saints that
were arraycd in fine linen, clean and white.
She had great deal of genius Of one sort and
another, particularly in music and she used
to sit at her organ, playing fine, old, majestic
music Of the Catholic church, and singing with
voice more like an angel than a mortal wo-
man; and would lay my head down on her
lap and cry, and dream and feel-oh immeas-
urably things that had no language to
say!
| III ulos uttys, uIiis VI sidNsTy Huu
never been canvassed us it has now nobody
dreamed Of any harm in it
My father was born aristocrat. | think,
in some pre-existcnt state, he must have been
in the higher circles Of spirits, and brought all
his old court pride along with him--for it Yss
ingram, bred in the bone thog1 he ss!c .
finally Of poor, and not ir, I'us'.-s" o &c
family. NV brother was N any way OF nopie
q No,v =, ar;s,oe, a. AZ begotten in his image.
oyor b"s no hnmo fdt you know, the world
tain line in society ~ sympathies beyond a GER
ono ,laoo ~ prr, In England the line is in
;na - .nS,hor rbAah in another, and in Amer
corn,r;a. ,,ora. but the aristocrat Of all these
harJsh;n and n goes over IT, What would be
class "a a cool distress and injustice in his OWL
NJ, ea,hor,s a;Anatter of course in another one
I,,o,,n H. so,.o tyidiug line was that OF color
ana ',e,.w',1 Ia never was a man more JUS
shro,,Sh, IN III but he considered the negro
;n,.r,aod;ata lssihle gradations Of color as n
"a ,..adoJ 81, link between man and animals
ON tbis Lvnothe his ideas of justice or generosit,
body baJ askedfis. suppose to be sure, If any
| thew had human him plump and ialr whethe
hemmed and hawynmorta, Souls te hi'gne nav
father was not a isd, and said yes But n, N
spiritualism- igioua M hiuch Ioupie '9 none
beyond yeneration ia sentiment hhee,dedly ths
head of the upper classesN Goo ~
"Weli, my father worked some five hundred
negroes; he was an inilexbls driving, punctil-
ious business man everything \Yas to move by
system--to be sustained with urh&ailing accura.
cy and precision. Now, if you f&ke into ac-
count that all this was to be worked out by
yet Of lazy, twaddling shiitloss lab6AerS, who
had grown up all their lives in the all hence Of
every possible motive Ia learn how to DO any
thing but 'shirk, as you vermonters say, and
you'll nee that there might naturally be, on his
plantation, a great many things that looked
horrible and distressing to a sensitive child like