University of Virginia Library

15. CHAPTER XV.
MR. JEKYL'S OPINIONS.

After the return of the gentlemen to the drawing-room,
Nina, at the request of Tom, followed him and Mr. Jekyl
into the library.

“Mr. Jekyl is going to make some statements to us,
Nina, about our property in Mississippi, which, if they turn
out as he expects, will set us up in the world,” said Tom.

Nina threw herself carelessly into the leathern arm-chair
by the window, and looked out of it.

“You see,” said Mr. Jekyl, also seating himself, and
pulling out the stiff points of his collar, “having done law
business for your father, and known, in that way, a good
deal about the family property, I have naturally always felt
a good deal of interest in it; and you remember your
father's sister, Mrs. Stewart, inherited, on the death of her
husband, a fine estate in Mississippi.”

“I remember,” said Tom, — “well, go on.”

“Well, she died, and left it all to her son. Well, he, it
seems, like some other young men, lived in a very reprehensible
union with a handsome quadroon girl, who was his
mother's maid; and she, being an artful creature, I suppose,
as a great many of them are, got such an ascendency over
him, that he took her up to Ohio, and married her, and lived
there with her some years, and had two children by her.
Well, you see, he had a deed of emancipation recorded for
her in Mississippi, and, just taking her into Ohio, set her
free by the laws of that state. Well, you see, he thought
he 'd fixed it so that the thing could n't be undone, and she

thought so too; and I understand she 's a pretty shrewd
woman — has a considerable share of character, or else she
would n't have done just what she has; for, you see, he
died about six months ago, and left the plantation and all
the property to her and her children, and she has been so
secure that she has actually gone and taken possession.
You see, she is so near white, you must know that there
is n't one in twenty would think what she was, — and the
people round there, actually, some of them, had forgotten
all about it, and did n't know but what she was a white
woman from Ohio; and so, you see, the thing never would
have been looked into at all, if I had n't happened to have
been down there. But, you see, she turned off an overseer
that had managed the place, because the people complained
of him; and I happened to fall in with the man, and he began
telling me his story, and, after a little inquiry, I found who
these people were. Well, sir, I just went to one of the first
lawyers, for I suspected there was false play; and we looked
over the emancipation laws together, and we found out that,
as the law stood, the deed of emancipation was no more than
so much waste paper. And so, you see, she and her children
are just as much slaves as any on her plantation; and
the whole property, which is worth a hundred thousand
dollars, belongs to your family. I rode out with him, and
looked over the place, and got introduced to her and her
children, and looked them over. Considered as property, I
should call them a valuable lot. She is past forty, but she
don't look older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I should
say. She is a very good-looking woman, and then, I 'm
told, a very capable woman. Well, her price in the market
might range between one thousand and fifteen hundred
dollars. Smalley said he had seen no better article sold
for two thousand dollars; but, then, he said, they had to
give a false certificate as to the age, — and that I could n't
hear of, for I never countenance anything like untruth.
Then, the woman's children: she has got two fine-looking
children as I have ever seen — almost white. The boy is
about ten years old; the little girl, about four. You may
be sure I was pretty careful not to let on, because I consider
the woman and children are an important part of the
property, and, of course, nothing had better be said about
it, lest she should be off before we are ready to come down
on them. Now, you see, you Gordons are the proper owners
of this whole property; there is n't the slightest doubt in
my mind that you ought to put in your claim immediately.
The act of emancipation was contrary to law, and, though
the man meant well, yet it amounted to a robbery of the
heirs. I declare, it rather raised my indignation to see that
creature so easy in the possession of property which of right
belongs to you. Now, if I have only the consent of the
heirs, I can go on and commence operations immediately.”

Nina had been sitting regarding Mr. Jekyl with a fixed
and determined expression of countenance. When he had
finished, she said to him,

“Mr. Jekyl, I understand you are an elder in the
church; is that true?”

“Yes, Miss Gordon, I have that privilege,” said Mr.
Jekyl, his sharp, business tone subsiding into a sigh.

“Because,” said Nina, “I am a wild young girl, and
don't profess to know much about religion; but I want you
to tell me, as a Christian, if you think it would be right to
take this woman and children, and her property.”

“Why, certainly, my dear Miss Gordon; is n't it right
that every one should have his own property? I view things
simply with the eye of the law; and, in the eye of the law,
that woman and her children are as much your property
as the shoe on your foot; there is no manner of doubt
of it.”

“I should think,” said Nina, “that you might see with
the eye of the Gospel, sometimes! Do you think, Mr.
Jekyl, that doing this is doing as I should wish to be done
by, if I were in the place of this woman?”

“My dear Miss Gordon, young ladies of fine feeling, at
your time of life, are often confused on this subject by a

wrong application of the Scripture language. Suppose I
were a robber, and had possession of your property? Of
course, I should n't wish to be made to give it up. But
would it follow that the golden rule obliged the lawful possessor
not to take it from me? This woman is your property;
this estate is your property, and she is holding it as
unlawfully as a robber. Of course, she won't want to give
it up; but right is right, notwithstanding.”

Like many other young persons, Nina could feel her way
out of a sophistry much sooner than she could think it out;
and she answered to all this reasoning,

“After all, I can't think it would be right.”

“O, confound the humbug!” said Tom, “who cares
whether it is right or not? The fact is, Nin, to speak
plain sense to you, you and I both are deuced hard up for
money, and want all we can get; and what 's the use of
being more religious than the very saints themselves at our
time of day? Mr. Jekyl is a pious man — one of the tallest
kind! He thinks this is all right, and why need we set
ourselves all up? He has talked with Uncle John, and he
goes in for it. As for my part, I am free to own I don't
care whether it 's right or not! I 'll do it if I can. Might
makes right, — that 's my doctrine!”

“Why,” said Mr. Jekyl, “I have examined the subject,
and I have n't the slightest doubt that slavery is a divinely-appointed
institution, and that the rights of the masters
are sanctioned by God; so, however much I may naturally
feel for this woman, whose position is, I must say, an unfortunate
one, still it is my duty to see that the law is properly
administered in the case.”

“All I have to say, Mr. Jekyl,” said Nina, “is just this:
that I won't have anything to do with this matter; for, if I
can't prove it 's wrong, I shall always feel it is.”

“Nina, how ridiculous!” said Tom.

“I have said my say,” said Nina, as she rose and left
the room.

“Very natural, — fine feelings, but uninstructed,” said
Mr. Jekyl.

“Certainly, we pious folks know a trick worth two of
that, don't we?” said Tom. “I say, Jekyl, this sister
of mine is a pretty rapid little case, I can tell you, as you
saw by the way she circumvented us, this morning. She is
quite capable of upsetting the whole dish, unless we go
about it immediately. You see, her pet nigger, this Harry,
is this woman's brother; and if she gave him the word,
he 'd write at once, and put her on the alarm. You and I
had better start off to-morrow, before this Harry comes
back. I believe he is to be gone a few days. It 's no matter
whether she consents to the suit or not. She don't need
to know anything about it.”

“Well,” said Jekyl, “I advise you to go right on, and
have the woman and children secured. It 's a perfectly fair,
legal proceeding. There has been an evident evasion of
the law of the state, by means of which your family are
defrauded of an immense sum. At all events, it will be
tried in an open court of justice, and she will be allowed to
appear by her counsel. It 's a perfectly plain, above-board
proceeding; and, as the young lady has shown such fine
feelings, there 's the best reason to suppose that the fate
of this woman would be as good in her hands as in her
own.”

Mr. Jekyl was not now talking to convince Tom Gordon,
but himself; for, spite of himself, Nina's questions
had awakened in his mind a sufficient degree of misgiving
to make it necessary for him to pass in review the arguments
by which he generally satisfied himself. Mr. Jekyl
was a theologian, and a man of principle. His metaphysical
talent, indeed, made him a point of reference among
his Christian brethren; and he spent much of his leisure
time in reading theological treatises. His favorite subject
of all was the nature of true virtue; and this, he had fixed
in his mind, consisted in a love of the greatest good. According
to his theology, right consisted in creating the

greatest amount of happiness; and every creature had
rights to be happy in proportion to his capacity of enjoyment
or being. He whose capacity was ten pounds had a
right to place his own happiness before that of him who
had five, because, in that way, five pounds more of happiness
would exist in the general whole. He considered
the right of the Creator to consist in the fact that he had a
greater amount of capacity than all creatures put together,
and, therefore, was bound to promote his own happiness
before all of them put together. He believed that the Creator
made himself his first object in all that he did; and,
descending from him, all creatures were to follow the same
rule, in proportion to their amount of being; the greater
capacity of happiness always taking precedence of the less.
Thus, Mr. Jekyl considered that the Creator brought into
the world yearly myriads of human beings with no other
intention than to make them everlastingly miserable; and
that this was right, because, his capacity of enjoyment being
greater than all theirs put together, he had a right to gratify
himself in this way.

Mr. Jekyl's belief in slavery was founded on his theology.
He assumed that the white race had the largest
amount of being; therefore, it had a right to take precedence
of the black. On this point he held long and severe
arguments with his partner, Mr. Israel McFogg, who, belonging
to a different school of theology, referred the whole
matter to no natural fitness, but to a divine decree, by which
it pleased the Creator in the time of Noah to pronounce a
curse upon Canaan. The fact that the African race did not
descend from Canaan was, it is true, a slight difficulty in
the chain of the argument; but theologians are daily in the
habit of surmounting much greater ones. Either way,
whether by metaphysical fitness or Divine decree, the two
partners attained the same practical result.

Mr. Jekyl, though a coarse-grained man, had started
from the hands of nature no more hard-hearted or unfeeling
than many others; but his mind, having for years been

immersed in the waters of law and theology, had slowly
petrified into such a steady consideration of the greatest
general good, that he was wholly inaccessible to any emotion
of particular humanity. The trembling, eager tone of
pity, in which Nina had spoken of the woman and children
who were about to be made victims of a legal process, had
excited but a moment's pause. What considerations of temporal
loss and misery can shake the constancy of the theologian
who has accustomed himself to contemplate and
discuss, as a cool intellectual exercise, the eternal misery
of generations? — who worships a God that creates myriads
only to glorify himself in their eternal torments?