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Show 196 Tli.E LJDER'f\' JJ}:;LL. Christian : his na.tion, his politics, and his religion being a guarantee that what he said was dictated by hypocrisy, from tho inspiration of selfishness; and could ho have been suddenly tra.nspodcd to the palaeo of rrruth, he must have confessed as much. Being a college professor, he would necessarily have added, "1 am afruid tho agitation of the subject will offend the oligarchy at the South, and that the University may lose students, and I my place." It is worse than useless to indulge men of this stamp with a reply; I meekly inquired whether, if tho three millions of blacks could bo suddenly turnecl white, he woukl venture to present a. single one of thcso considerations for keeping them in Slavery. An ignorant, unthinking, vulgar prcju· dice is, in fact, the American's only ally in the war which his mistaken notions of political and pecuniary interest lead him to wage ngnin!it Liberty : how uncertain a one a single fa.ct will show, which fell under my own observation. Tll~ VOUNO SAILOII. 197 It was the year when the failing health of a friend demanded a warmer climate than that of New England. 1'hc !lhysician recommended that of Virginia or Carolina; but tho name and chn.ractcr of an Abolitionist would be certain to expose tho invalid to popular violence, and thus defeat the purpose of the journey. It was therefore reluctantly decided to visit Haiti instead of our own Southern States. It afterwards appeared, by observations, four times carefully repeated during succcssh·e voyages, of tbe improved health of the patient in thirty-nine degrees north latitude, that tho climate of our own District of Columbia was tho one which might perhaps have saved that most valuable life to hi.s country, his family, and the cause. But this is foreign to my present purpose. I am not now to show the worthlessness of the Union to a Christian and a gentleman. It was with a cheerful and n hopeful spirit that we wont on board the little schooner of n. hundred and twenty tons, bound to the City of tho Cape. 17• |
