Myers. When you will spoil the whole. (Enter Hood R.) It takes brains to run a country like this, and the south haven’t got the material.
Hood. Indeed!
Myers. Yes, sir; indeed. It is one thing to raise cotton and another thing to make it valuable. You never had sense enough in the south to utilize it. If you have, where are your mills? The south is loaded with water-power. The brains of the country are in New England and the middle states. Kick those friends in the face and where are you? England, you say? They would hold the same relation to you at once. What do you gain? An enemy on the border. I owe allegiance to the British crown, but I like your country. It will be my future home.
Brightly. I was going to say—that I was afraid this country couldn’t do without ye.
Myers. Sum the south and its institutions, and what is it? Planters who know nothing but to buy and work a nigger. A large element whose highest ambition is hog, hominy, a horse race and whiskey enough for the present. Politicians, who discover nothing but that the north is leeching its living from the south and stealing its niggers.
Brightly. How much would it cost to get two or three Johnny Bulls like you to come over and run this machine?
Myers. Sarcasm don’t answer argument. It takes a variety of people and interests to make a country like this. I have travelled it all over. It’s a big thing. Believe me, gentlemen, when I say that you require New England for its manufacturing push, the west for its bread and meat, the south for its cotton and sugar. Kick out one and you spoil the whole.
Brightly. Myers, you should have chosen the law instead of Faro and speckelatin in niggers.
Myers. Why?
Brightly. You got so much cheek, and you can twist a lie so it will look like a fact.