But M'Carstrow, when given
the bond, knew enough of nigger law to demand the insertion of a
clause leaving it subject to the question of property, which is to
be decided by the court. A high court this, where freemen sit
assembled to administer curious justice. What constitutional
inconsistencies hover over the monstrous judicial dignity of this
court,--this court having jurisdiction over the monetary value of
beings moulded after God's own image! It forms a happy jurisprudence
for those who view it for their selfish ends; it gains freedom
tyranny's license, gives birth to strange incongruities, clashing
between the right of property in man and all the viler passions of
our nature. It holds forth a jurisprudence that turns men into
hounds of hell, devouring one another, and dragging human nature
down into the very filth of earth.
Marston's troubles keep increasing. All the preliminaries of law
necessary to a sale of the undisputed property have been gone
through; the day of its disposal has arrived. The children, Annette
and Nicholas, have remained in a cell, suffering under its malarious
atmosphere, anxiously awaiting their fate. Marston has had them
taught to read,--contrary to a generous law of a generous land,--and
at intervals they sit together pondering over little books he has
sent them.
What are such little books to them? the unbending avarice of human
nature, fostered by slavery's power, is grappling at their
existence. There is no sympathy for them; it is crushed out by the
law which makes them chattels.
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