Peek’s apprehensions in regard to Ratcliff’s agent, Semmes, were not imaginary. Semmes was of the school in politics and policy of old Mr. Slidell. He did not believe in the vitality and absoluteness of right and goodness. His life maxim was, while bowing and smirking to all the world, to hold all the world as cheats. To his mind, slavery was right, because it was profitable; and inwardly he pooh-poohed at every attempt to vindicate or to condemn it from a moral or religious point of view. He laid it down as an axiom, that slavery must exist just so long as it paid.
“Worthy souls, sir, these philanthropists,—but they want the virile element,—the practical element, sir! Like women and poets, they are led by their emotions. If the world were in the hands of such softs, the old machine would be smashed up in universal anarchy.”
Ah, thou blind guide! These tender souls thou scornest are they who always prevail in the long run. They prevail, because God rules through them, and because he does not withdraw himself utterly from human affairs! They prevail because Christ’s doctrine of self-abnegation, and of justice and love, is the very central principle of progress, whether in the heavens or on the earth; because it is the keystone of the arch by which all things are upheld and saved from chaos. Yes, Divine duty, Charity! “Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,—and the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong!”
Benjamin Constant remarked of conservative Talleyrand, that had he been present at the creation of all things, he would have exclaimed, “Good God! chaos will be destroyed!” Beware of the conservatism that would impede God’s work of justice and of love!
Ratcliff, in his last confidential interview with Semmes, had communicated to the lawyer all the facts which he himself was in possession of in regard to the White Slave. In the quiet of Ratcliff’s library, Semmes now carefully revolved and weighed all these particulars. The fact that Clara might be wrongfully held as a slave made little impression upon him, his proper business being to conform to his client’s wishes and to make his client’s claim as strong as possible, without regard to any other considerations. What puzzled him greatly was Madam Volney’s apparent interest in Clara; and as for Esha, she was a perfect sphinx in her impenetrability. As he pondered the question of her fidelity, the thought occurred to him, Why not learn something of her antecedents from Mrs. Gentry? A good idea!
That very evening he knocked at the door of the “select establishment.” A bright-faced black boy had run up the steps in advance of him, and asked who it was he wanted to see. “Mrs. Gentry.” “Well, sir, she’s in. Just give the bell a good pull.” And the officious boy disappeared. A minute afterwards the lawyer was seated in the lady’s presence in her little parlor.
“And have you heard from poor Mr. Ratcliff?” she asked.
“He is still in confinement, I believe, in Fort Lafayette.”
“Ah! is he, poor man?” returned the lady; and it was on her mind to add: “I knew he would be come up with! I said he would be come up with!” But she repressed the exulting exclamation, and simply added: “Those horrid Yankees! Do you think, Mr. Semmes, we are in any danger from this down-east general, known as Picayune Butler?”
“Don’t be under concern, Madam. He may be a sharp lawyer, but if he ever comes to New Orleans, it will be as a prisoner.”