" He touches her on the arm, and knits his brows
in caution.
"How strange, to think that bad influence could come of such an
inoffensive old man! Truth, I know and feel, is powerfully painful
when brought home to the doors of our best people,--it cuts deep when
told in broad letters; but they make the matter worse by attempting
to enshrine the stains with their chivalry. We are a wondrous
people, uncle, and the world is just finding it out, to our shame.
We may find it out ourselves, by and by; perhaps pay the penalty
with sorrow. We look upon negroes as if they were dropped down from
some unaccountable origin,--intended to raise the world's cotton,
rice, and sugar, but never to get above the menial sphere we have
conditioned for them. Uncle, there is a mistake somewhere,--a mistake
sadly at variance with our democratic professions. Democracy needs
to reclaim its all-claiming principles of right and justice for the
down-trodden. And yet, while the negro generously submits to serve
us, we look upon him as an auspicious innovator, who never could
have been born to enjoy manhood, and was subjected to bear a black
face because God had marked him for servitude. Did God found an
aristocracy of colour, or make men to be governed by their
distinctive qualifications of colour relationship?" says Franconia,
her face resuming a flush of agitation. Touching Marston on the arm
with the fore-finger of her right hand, and giving a glance at Bob,
who listens attentively to the theme of conversation, she continues:
"Say no more of bad influence coming of slaves, when the corruptest
examples are set by those who hold them as such,--who crash their
hopes, blot out their mental faculties, and turn their bodies into
licentious merchandise that they may profit by its degradation! Show
me the humblest slave on your plantation, and, in comparison with
the slave-dealer, I will prove him a nobleman of God's kind,--of
God's image: his simple nature will be his clean passport into
heaven.
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