Morning journal and courier., 1891-08-20

gods Mir. C.'s table was served with the utmost elegance, and with @ profusion of good things. He gave, on my account, dinner party-as handsome an entertain ment of the kind as ever saw. He told me that he knew no more than did what was to be on the table.
 He owned 8 steward and msjordomo, who must have been of kindred genius with Smith, whom many of my readers knew and some of them must have em- ployed, who on one occasion offered to furnish Harvard commencement dinner gratuitously if the college would give him the degree-which would not have been unmerited or unearned-of master of arts
 MT. 0. told me that he never gave specific directions for his table, and that when he was to have company for dinner he simply told Scipio how many guests he was going to have, and whom, and Scipio adapted the dinner to the number and quality of the guests. MT. c. prized this man so highly that he once sent him to Saratoga for his health. But, in eulogizing him, he added trait which we at the north could hardly regard as characteristic of faith ful servant. Said he: "I give Scipio eve " month a certain sum for my table, and if, before the month is out, he tells me that he has spent it all give him more. I have no doubt that he keeps for himself pdIG OI hudL Slfc 4O4 nav 70 found that he has property of his own, for which I can account in no other way" Now this trait was, as ascertained, recog- nized generally by slsveheIders. The slaves, however faithful in other respects, would steal when they could; and, in looking into the records of slavery and oppression from the earliest ages till now, have learned that in all times stealing has been and is the uniform habit of en- slaved and oppressed races. Those who know that they are deprived of what is rightfully theirs feel authorized to assess damages by some arithmetic of their own, and to levy them whenever and wherever they can.
 Here was slavery at its very best, and there were probably hundreds of families where it existed in like fashion; and if the negroes are to be regarded as working cat | tie, they could not have been better off. | They were well lodged and fed, and could
 have been worked no harder than was ne- cessary for exercise and digestion.
 But there had taken place at Savannah, several years before my visit, a transac- | ton which showed in it's worst aspects the pro- slavery infatuation of the people. A | man whom will not name, from one of | our good New England towns which I will | not name, was an auctioneer, and held @ slave auction every Saturday. He had be- | longed at the north to Unitarian society, | and essayed to establish one in Savannah. | He was, I will not say respectable, but re- spected, and was in perfectly good stand ! ing. was told that had he been a slave trader he would not have been respectable; but slave selling was mere incident in his profession, and was not on his own &C., | count, but on that of his clients, his
 standing was not injuriously affected. | For this society of his, it was deemed ex- | pedient in Boston to send minister who | would be acceptable at the south. The choice fell on Rev. Mir. Motte, afterward | of the the South Congregational church in I this city, native of South Carolina, a
 man of elegant culture, with the manners
 of southern gentleman-a type now as extinct as the dodo-really very charming,
 such blending of dignity and grace as
 can hardly be formed except where one is | tion as regards permanently lower order
 of beings, and bears that consciousness. | meekly. He was not an abolitionist, and
 had then no alliance or sympathy with the
 anti-slavery party at the north. But hay ing inherited a family of slaves, he had
 emancipated them, because he was unwil ling to burden his conscience with so fear
 ful responsibility as the ownership of
 fellow men. He was sent to the Savannah
 society sas-a man specially fitted forIits eer
 vice. But his act of emancipation wal
 there regarded as an unpardonable sin
 He was repudiated indignantly by tn,
 members of the society, and was treated
 with so much insolence, not without peri
 of personal violence, that he was com
 pelled to retreat in hot haste.
 l I spent a fortnight at New Orleans
 There I visited a large slave-market wher,
 I could obtain comprehensive view o
 some of the worst, the most hideous ant
 soul l-sickening aspects of slavery. A larg'
 proportion of those on sale were mani festly intensely anxious as to their fate
 Supposing that my friends and wer
 there on business, several of them asked
 us to purchase them, probably thinking
 that we did not look as if we would b'
 hard masters I confess that I never II
 my life felt so f1attered as to my persona
 appearance as I was by the earnestnesi l with which, on the score of my goot ! looks, two or three of those poor creatures
 begged that they might become my prop
 erty There were in the market all shade l of color-some who had less of blacl
 blood than would have made them octo I roons-several young women who woulc
 have passed for white, and who were helt
 at very high price.
 The Rev. MT. Clapp, for many years tn I I
 stay in the city during the yellow-feve
 seasons, owned his sexton, though wit
 that exception he had never owned an
 human being He told me that he say
 this poor, broken-down old man in tn
 market, in great distress for fear of bein
 sold where he would be overworked am maltreated, and so strong an appeal wa made to his compassion that he paid tn
 paltry price and utilized the man for ligh work about his church.
 was in New Orleans while Dr. Palfre was looking after his human property, an no one who was not on the spot can est
 mate the energy and perseverance wit } which he prosecuted his claim. He was ' man who would have defed all the power l of earth and hell in pursuit of what h , deemed right, and who never failed t , have heaven on his side. A man les strenuous in his purpose would have sut r | sumbed He, as one of three brother 3 inherited his share of family of slave' 3 His brothers proposed to let him have hi [ entire heritage in money. and to keep th l slaves. When he declined this the a - tempt was made to interpose legal obsts
 cles in the way of emancipation, and th I case was even brought before the legisl' v ture, but he fought his ground inch b 2 inch, and he told me that he had resolve l. not to leave the spot alive till he coul 8 bring his quota of black property wit L him to the north. He prevailed. He ws @ suffered to choose his share of the proper : ty, and he chose those whom he suppose l to have the lowest market valve, and to | s therefore most likely to suffer wrong | - slaves; so that he had more than a thir }. part, more than forty in number, all ( ,, whom he brought to the north and care ,- for till they were in positions in whic
 they could earn their own living. To 8
 his friends it seemed nobly philanthrop ;, transaction; he regarded it simply as
 painful duty laid upon him by the divil | itall al.o.,k