"
"On one disagreeable subject," I said to him aside, "I will make this
general remark: The Southern slaves are, as a whole, a religious people;
their religion, indeed, is of a type corresponding to their condition.
But still, if the South were one festering pool of iniquity, as many at
the North fancy, would the colored people show such evidences as they do
of moral and spiritual improvement? Look at Hayti. A very large majority
of the children are not born in wedlock. Slavery is a moral restraint
upon the Southern colored people. Evil as slavery is, it is, in many
things, taking the slaves as they are, a comparative blessing."
"But," said Mr. North, "our people generally insist that abuses,
oppression, cruelty, are so inherent in slavery that they cannot be
removed without destroying the relation itself."
"Here," said I, "is the mistake under which Southerners perceive that we
labor, and which prevents us from having the least influence with them.
"This, however, is unquestionably true: as human nature is, we would not
choose to give men unlimited power over their fellow-men who are slaves.
If, in the course of events, it is found by good men that the abuses
flowing from such power are inevitable, that legislative enactments and
public opinion cannot control the relation, their consciences will not
be quiet till it is abolished.
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