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Adams, Nehemiah, 1806-1878

"The Sable Cloud A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861)"




CHAPTER VI.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
"The sages say dame Truth delights to dwell,
Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well.
Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope
That pull the grave old gentlewoman up."
PETER PINDAR.

My friend, Mr. North, having read the foregoing letters, wrote me a note
requesting me to come and spend an evening with him and his wife, and
answer some questions occasioned by these letters. The lady was earnest
that I should do so.
After being seated before a cheerful fire in my friend's house, while it
was raining violently, so that we felt defended from all interruption,
my friend said,--
"Here, first of all, is the Southern lady's letter to her father, which,
I suppose, belongs to him, and which you may wish to send back."
"I do," said I.
"But, please," said Mrs. North, "let it be published. Add to it the
incident of the Southern lady nursing the sick babe of a slave."
"O my dear," said her husband, "that would create a false impression. It
would be a pro-slavery tract. It would abate Northern zeal against the
'sum of all villanies.' Something should go forth with such
representations to correct their influence in the Free States.


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