Besides,
what's to hinder new work being found for the slaves? Why can't they dig
coal and gold like peons? Why can't they farm? Perhaps not; and yet I am
not so sure of Douglas on that. He is the most convincing man in the
world when you are with him. But when he goes away from you his spell
slips off and you see the holes in his argument."
"You have been reading and thinking, haven't you, Reverdy?"
"Oh, yes, all the time. What I am afraid of is a war. I had a little dab
of it in the Black Hawk trouble. But a war between these states would
shake the earth. I have two boys, you know. Sarah worries about it.
Everybody's beginning to live in a kind of terror."
"I have read about it too, ever since I have been in America. I have
applied my philosophically exercised faculties to it. I have talked with
Mr. Williams about it many times and with Douglas. I have had dozens of
conversations on all these things. It seems to me that I could advance
some new arguments myself."
"What new arguments could you advance?" asked Reverdy.
"Well," I said, "suppose I wanted to take a definite stand that slavery
is wrong, which these Whigs won't. They only play with the question.
They want to limit it perhaps. But why? Is it wrong? Or is it against
northern interests? What? But suppose I took such a stand and needed a
legal foundation.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334