University of Virginia Library

23. CHAPTER XXIII.
FRANK RUSSEL'S OPINIONS.

Clayton was still pursuing the object which he had undertaken.
He determined to petition the legislature to grant
to the slave the right of seeking legal redress in cases of
injury; and, as a necessary step to this, the right of bearing
testimony in legal action. As Frank Russel was candidate
for the next state legislature, he visited him for the purpose
of getting him to present such a petition.

Our readers will look in on the scene, in a small retired
back room of Frank's office, where his bachelor establishment
as yet was kept. Clayton had been giving him an
earnest account of his plans and designs.

“The only safe way of gradual emancipation,” said Clayton,
“is the reforming of law; and the beginning of all legal
reform must of course be giving the slave legal personality.
It 's of no use to enact laws for his protection in his family
state, or in any other condition, till we open to him an
avenue through which, if they are violated, his grievances
can be heard, and can be proved. A thousand laws for his
comfort, without this, are only a dead letter.”

“I know it,” said Frank Russel; “there never was anything
under heaven so atrocious as our slave-code. It 's a
bottomless pit of oppression. Nobody knows it so well as
we lawyers. But, then, Clayton, it 's quite another thing
what 's to be done about it.”

“Why, I think it 's very plain what 's to be done,”
said Clayton. “Go right forward and enlighten the community.

Get the law reformed. That 's what I have
taken for my work; and, Frank, you must help me.”

“Hum!” said Frank. “Now, the fact is, Clayton, if I
wore a stiff white neckcloth, and had a D.D. to my name, I
should tell you that the interests of Zion stood in the way,
and that it was my duty to preserve my influence, for the
sake of being able to take care of the Lord's affairs. But,
as I am not so fortunate, I must just say, without further
preface, that it won't do for me to compromise Frank Russel's
interests. Clayton, I can't afford it — that 's just it.
It won't do. You see, our party can't take up that kind
of thing. It would be just setting up a fort from which our
enemies could fire on us at their leisure. If I go in to the
legislature, I have to go in by my party. I have to represent
my party, and, of course, I can't afford to do anything
that will compromise them.”

“Well, now, Frank,” said Clayton, seriously and soberly,
“are you going to put your neck into such a noose as this,
to be led about all your life long — the bond-slave of a
party?”

“Not I, by a good deal!” said Russel. “The noose
will change ends, one of these days, and I 'll drag the party.
But we must all stoop to conquer, at first.”

“And do you really propose nothing more to yourself
than how to rise in the world?” said Clayton. “Is n't
there any great and good work that has beauty for you?
Is n't there anything in heroism and self-sacrifice?”

“Well,” said Russel, after a short pause, “may be
there is; but, after all, Clayton, is there? The world looks
to me like a confounded humbug, a great hoax, and everybody
is going in for grub; and, I say, hang it all, why
should n't I have some of the grub, as well as the rest?”

“Man shall not live by bread alone!” said Clayton.

“Bread 's a pretty good thing, though, after all,” said
Frank, shrugging his shoulders.

“But,” said Clayton, “Frank, I am in earnest, and
you 've got to be. I want you to go with me down to the

depths of your soul, where the water is still, and talk to me
on honor. This kind of half-joking way that you have is n't
a good sign, Frank; it 's too old for you. A man that
makes a joke of everything at your age, what will he do
before he is fifty? Now, Frank, you do know that this system
of slavery, if we don't reform it, will eat out this
country like a cancer.”

“I know it,” said Frank. “For that matter, it has eaten
into us pretty well.”

“Now,” said Clayton, “if for nothing else, if we had no
feeling of humanity for the slave, we must do something for
the sake of the whites, for this is carrying us back into barbarism,
as fast as we can go. Virginia has been ruined by
it — run all down. North Carolina, I believe, has the enviable
notoriety of being the most ignorant and poorest state in
the Union. I don't believe there 's any country in old, despotic
Europe where the poor are more miserable, vicious,
and degraded, than they are in our slave states. And it 's
depopulating us; our men of ability, in the lower classes,
who want to be respectable, won't stand it. They will go
off to some state where things move on. Hundreds and
hundreds move out of North Carolina, every year, to the
Western States. And it 's all this unnatural organization
of society that does it. We have got to contemplate some
mode of abolishing this evil. We have got to take the first
step towards progress, some time, or we ourselves are all
undone.”

“Clayton,” said Frank, in a tone now quite as serious as
his own, “I tell you, as a solemn fact, that we can't do it.
Those among us who have got the power in their hands
are determined to keep it, and they are wide awake. They
don't mean to let the first step be taken, because they
don't mean to lay down their power. The three fifths vote
that they get by it is a thing they won't part with. They 'll
die first. Why, just look at it! There is at least twenty-four
millions of property held in this way. What do you
suppose these men care about the poor whites, and the ruin

of the state, and all that? The poor whites may go to the
devil, for all them; and as for the ruin of the state, it won't
come in their day; and `after us the deluge,' you know.
That 's the talk! These men are our masters; they are
yours; they are mine; they are masters of everybody in
these United States. They can crack their whips over the
head of any statesman or clergyman, from Maine to New
Orleans, that disputes their will. They govern the country.
Army, navy, treasury, church, state, everything is theirs;
and whoever is going to get up must go up on their ladder.
There is n't any other ladder. There is n't an interest, not
a body of men, in these whole United States, that they can't
control; and I tell you, Clayton, you might as well throw
ashes into the teeth of the north wind, as undertake to fight
their influence. Now, if there was any hope of doing any
good by this, if there was the least prospect of succeeding,
why, I 'd join in with you; but there is n't. The thing is a
fixed fact, and why should n't I climb up on it, as well as
everybody else?”

“Nothing is fixed,” said Clayton, “that is n't fixed in
right. God and nature fight against evil.”

“They do, I suppose; but it 's a long campaign,” said
Frank, “and I must be on the side that will win while I 'm
alive. Now, Clayton, to you I always speak the truth; I
won't humbug you. I worship success. I am of Frederick
the Great's creed, `that Providence goes with the strongest
battalions.”

“I was n't made for defeat. I must have power. The
preservation of this system, whole and entire, is to be the
policy of the leaders of this generation. The fact is, they
stand where it must be their policy. They must spread it
over the whole territory. They must get the balance of
power in the country, to build themselves up against the
public opinion of mankind.

“Why, Clayton, moral sentiment, as you call it, is a
humbug! The whole world acquiesces in what goes — they
always have. There is a great outcry about slavery now;

but let it succeed, and there won't be. When they can out-vote
the Northern States, they 'll put them down. They have
kept them subservient by intrigue so far, and by and by
they 'll have the strength to put them down by force. England
makes a fuss now; but let them only succeed, and she 'll
be civil as a sheep. Of course, men always make a fuss
about injustice, when they have nothing to gain by holding
their tongues; but England's mouth will be stopped with
cotton — you 'll see it. They love trade, and hate war.
And so the fuss of anti-slavery will die out in the world.
Now, when you see what a poor hoax human nature is,
what 's the use of bothering? The whole race together
are n't worth a button, Clayton, and self-sacrifice for such
fools is a humbug. That 's my programme!”

“Well, Frank, you have made a clean breast; so will I.
The human race, as you say, may be a humbug, but it 's
every man's duty to know for himself that he is n't one. I
am not. I do not worship success, and will not. And if a
cause is a right and honorable one, I will labor in it till I
die, whether there is any chance of succeeding or not.”

“Well, now,” said Frank Russel, “I dare say it 's so. I
respect your sort of folks; you form an agreeable heroic
poem, with which one can amuse the tediousness of life.
I suppose it won't do you any good to tell you that you are
getting immensely unpopular, with what you are doing.”

“No,” said Clayton, “it won't.”

“I am really afraid,” said Russel, “that they 'll mob
you, some of these bright days.”

“Very well,” said Clayton.

“O, of course, I knew it would be very well; but, say,
Clayton, what do you want to get up a petition on that
point for? Why don't you get up one to prevent the separation
of families? There 's been such a muss made about
that in Europe, and all round the world, that it 's rather the
fashion to move about that a little. Politicians like to
appear to intend to begin to do something about it. It has
a pleasing effect, and gives the Northern editors and ministers

something to say, as an apology for our sins. Besides,
there are a good many simple-hearted folks, who don't see
very deep into things, that really think it possible to do
something effective on this subject. If you get up a petition
for that, you might take the tide with you; and I 'd do
something about it, myself.”

“You know very well, Frank, for I told you, that it 's no
use to pass laws for that, without giving the slaves power
to sue or give evidence, in case of violation. The improvement
I propose touches the root of the matter.”

“That 's the fact — it surely does!” said Russel. “And,
for that very reason, you 'll never carry it. Now, Clayton,
I just want to ask you one question. Can you fight? Will
you fight? Will you wear a bowie-knife and pistol, and
shoot every fellow down that comes at you?”

“Why, no, of course, Frank. You know that I never
was a fighting man. Such brute ways are not to my taste.”

“Then, my dear sir, you should n't set up for a reformer
in Southern states. Now, I 'll tell you one thing, Clayton,
that I 've heard. You made some remarks at a public meeting,
up at E., that have started a mad-dog cry, which I suppose
came from Tom Gordon. See here; have you noticed
this article in the Trumpet of Liberty?” said he, looking
over a confused stack of papers on his table. “Where 's
the article? O, here it is.”

At the same time he handed Clayton a sheet bearing the
motto “Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable,”
and pointed to an article headed

“Covert Abolitionism! Citizens, Beware!

“We were present, a few evenings ago, at the closing
speech delivered before the Washington Agricultural Society,
in the course of which the speaker, Mr. Edward Clayton,
gratuitously wandered away from his subject to make
inflammatory and seditious comments on the state of the
laws which regulate our negro population. It is time for
the friends of our institutions to be awake. Such remarks,

dropped in the ear of a restless and ignorant population,
will be a fruitful source of sedition and insurrection. This
young man is supposed to be infected with the virus of
Northern abolitionists. We cannot too narrowly watch the
course of such individuals; for the only price at which we
can maintain liberty is eternal vigilance. Mr. Clayton belongs
to one of our oldest and most respected families,
which makes his conduct the more inexcusable.”

Clayton persued this with a quiet smile, which was usual
with him.

“The hand of Joab is in that thing,” said Frank Russel.

“I 'm sure I said very little,” said Clayton. “I was
only showing the advantage to our agriculture of a higher
tone of moral feeling among our laborers, which, of course,
led me to speak of the state of the law regulating them. I
said nothing but what everybody knows.”

“But, don't you know, Clayton,” said Russel, “that if a
fellow has an enemy — anybody bearing him the least ill-will
— that he puts a tremendous power in his hands by
making such remarks? Why, our common people are so
ignorant that they are in the hands of anybody who wants
to use them. They are just like a swarm of bees; you can
manage them by beating on a tin pan. And Tom Gordon
has got the tin pan now, I fancy. Tom intends to be a
swell. He is a born bully, and he 'll lead a rabble. And
so you must take care. Your family is considerable for
you; but, after all, it won't stand you in stead for everything.
Who have you got to back you? Who have you
talked with?”

“Well,” said Clayton, “I have talked with some of the
ministry —”

“And, of course,” said Frank, “you found that the
leadings of Providence did n't indicate that they are to be
martyrs! You have their prayers in secret, I presume; and
if you ever get the cause on the upper hill-side, they 'll
come out and preach a sermon for you. Now, Clayton, I 'll

tell you what I 'll do. If Tom Gordon attacks you, I 'll pick
a quarrel with him, and shoot him right off the reel. My
stomach is n't nice about those matters, and that sort of
thing won't compromise me with my party.”

“Thank you,” said Clayton, “I shall not trouble you.”

“My dear fellow,” said Russel, “you philosophers are
very much mistaken about the use of carnal weapons. As
long as you wrestle with flesh and blood, you had better
use fleshly means. At any rate, a gentlemanly brace of
pistols won't hurt you; and, in fact, Clayton, I am serious.
You must wear pistols, — there are no two ways about it.
Because, if these fellows know that a man wears pistols
and will use them, it keeps them off. They have an objection
to being shot, as this is all the world they are likely to
have. And I think, Clayton, you can fire off a pistol in as
edifying and dignified a manner, as you can say a grace on
proper occasions. The fact is, before long there will be a
row kicked up. I 'm pretty sure of it. Tom Gordon is a
deeper fellow than you 'd think, and he has booked himself for
Congress; and he means to go in on the thunder-and-blazes
principle, which will give him the vote of all the rabble.
He 'll go into Congress to do the fighting and slashing.
There always must be a bully or two there, you know, to
knock down fellows that you can't settle any other way.
And nothing would suit him better, to get his name up,
than heading a crusade against an abolitionist.”

“Well,” said Clayton, “if it 's come to that, that we
can't speak and discuss freely in our own state, where
are we?”

“Where are we, my dear fellow? Why, I know where
we are; and if you don't, it 's time you did. Discuss freely?
Certainly we can, on one side of the question; or on both
sides of any other question than this. But this you can't
discuss freely, and they can't afford to let you, as long as
they mean to keep their power. Do you suppose they are
going to let these poor devils, whites, get their bandages
off their eyes, that make them so easy to lead now? There

would be a pretty bill to pay, if they did! Just now, these
fellows are in as safe and comfortable a condition for use as
a party could desire; because they have got votes, and we
have the guiding of them. And they rage, and swear, and
tear, for our institutions, because they are fools, and don't
know what hurts them. Then, there 's the niggers. Those
fellows are deep. They have as long ears as little pitchers,
and they are such a sort of fussy set, that whatever is going
on in the community is always in their mouths, and so comes
up that old fear of insurrection. That 's the awful word,
Clayton! That lies at the bottom of a good many things
in our state, more than we choose to let on. These negroes
are a black well; you never know what 's at the bottom.”

“Well,” said Clayton, “the only way, the only safeguard
to prevent this is reform. They are a patient set, and will
bear a great while; and if they only see that anything is
being done, it will be an effectual prevention. If you want
insurrection, the only way is to shut down the escape-valve;
for, will ye nill ye, the steam must rise. You see, in
this day, minds will grow. They are growing. There 's no
help for it, and there 's no force like the force of growth.
I have seen a rock split in two by the growing of an elmtree
that wanted light and air, and would make its way up
through it. Look at all the aristocracies of Europe. They
have gone down under this force. Only one has stood —
that of England. And how came that to stand? Because
it knew when to yield; because it never confined discussion;
because it gave way gracefully before the growing
force of the people. That 's the reason it stands to-day,
while the aristocracy of France has been blown to
atoms.”

“My dear fellow,” said Russel, “this is all very true and
convincing, no doubt; but you won't make our aristocracy
believe it. They have mounted the lightning, and they are
going to ride it whip and spur. They are going to annex
Cuba and the Sandwich Islands, and the Lord knows what,
and have a great and splendid slaveholding empire. And

the North is going to be what Greece was to Rome. We
shall govern it, and it will attend to the arts of life for us.
The South understands governing. We are trained to rule
from the cradle. We have leisure to rule. We have
nothing else to do. The free states have their factories, and
their warehouses, and their schools, and their internal improvements,
to take up their minds; and, if we are careful,
and don't tell them too plain where we are taking them,
they 'll never know it till they get there.”

“Well,” said Clayton, “there 's one element of force
that you 've left out in your calculation.”

“And what 's that?” said Russel.

“God,” said Clayton.

“I don't know anything about him,” said Russel.

“You may have occasion to learn, one of these days,”
said Clayton. “I believe he is alive yet.”