“That's my business. I act for the State, and not for you. Are you counsel for these niggers, that you are so anxious to set them at liberty among our slaves? You seem to have more interest in it than that interfering consul. Just let these Yankee niggers and British niggers out to-night, and we'd have another insurrection before morning; it's better to prevent than cure,” said Grimshaw.
“The only insurrection would have been in your heart, for the loss of fees. If you did not intend what you said, why did you deceive me with such statements? I know the feelings of our people, as well as I do yours for caging people within that jail. Upon that, I intimated to the Captain what I thought would be the probable result, and this morning I proceeded to his vessel to reassure him, upon your statement. Imagine my mortification when he informed me that his steward had been dragged off to jail early in the morning, and that those two ruffians whom you disgrace the community with, behaved in the most outrageous manner. It is in your power to relieve this man, and I ask it as a favor, and on behalf of what I know to be the feelings of the citizens of Charleston.”
“Your request, colonel,” said Mr. Grimshaw, with a little more complacency, “is too much in the shape of a demand. There's no discretion left me by the State, and if you have a power superior to that, you better pay the expenses of the nigger, and take the management into your own hands. I never allow this trifling philanthropy about niggers to disturb me. I could never follow out the laws of the State and practise it; and you better not burden yourself with it, or your successors may suffer for adequate means to support themselves. Now, sir, take my advice. It's contrary to law for them niggers to come here; you know our laws cannot be violated. South Carolina has a great interest at stake in maintaining the reputation of her laws. Don't excite the nigger's anxiety, and he'll be better off in jail than he would running about among the wenches. He won't have luxuries, but we'll make him comfortable, and he must suit his habits to our way of living. We must not set a bad example before our own niggers; the whiter they are the worse they are. They struggle for their existence now, and think they're above observing our nigger laws. We want to get rid of them, and you know it,” returned Grimshaw.
“Yes; I know it too well, for I have had too many cases to protect them from being 'run off' and sold in the New Orleans market. But when you speak of white niggers, I suppose you mean our brightest; I dispute your assertion, and point you to my proof in the many men of wealth among them now pursuing their occupations in our city. Can you set an example more praiseworthy? And notwithstanding they are imposed upon by taxes, and many of our whites take the advantage of law to withhold the payment of debts contracted with them, they make no complaint. They are subject to the same law that restricts the blackest slave. Where is the white man that would not have yielded under such inequality? No! Mr. Grimshaw, I am as true a Southerner-born and bred-as you are; but I have the interests of these men at heart, because I know they are with us, and their interests and feelings are identical with our own. They are Native Americans by birth and blood, and we have no right to dispossess them by law of what we have given them by blood. We destroy their feelings by despoiling them of their rights, and by it we weaken our own cause. Give them the same rights and privileges that we extend to that miserable class of foreigners who are spreading pestilence and death over our social institutions, and we would have nothing to fear from them, but rather find them our strongest protectors. I want to see a law taking from that class of men the power to lord it over and abuse them.”
A friend, who has resided several years in Charleston, strong in his feelings of Southern rights, and whose keen observation could not fail to detect the working of different phases of the slave institution, informed us that he had conversed with a great many very intelligent and enterprising men belonging to that large class of “bright” men in Charleston, and that which appeared to pain them most was the manner they were treated by foreigners of the lowest class; that rights which they had inherited by birth and blood were taken away from them; that, being subjected to the same law which governed the most abject slave, every construction of it went to degrade them, while it gave supreme power to the most degraded white to impose upon them, and exercise his vindictive feelings toward them; that no consideration being given to circumstances, the least deviation from the police regulations made to govern negroes, was taken advantage of by the petty guardmen, who either extorted a fee to release them, or dragged them to the police-office, where their oath was nothing, even if supported by testimony of their own color; but the guardman's word was taken as positive proof. Thus the laws of South Carolina forced them to be what their feelings revolted at. And I want to see another making it a penal offence for those men holding slaves for breeding purposes. Another, which humanity calls for louder than any other, is one to regulate their food, punish these grievous cases of starvation, and make the offender suffer for withholding proper rations.
“Well-pretty well!” said Grimshaw, snapping his fingers very significantly. “You seem to enjoy the independence of your own opinion, colonel. Just prove this nigger's a white, and I'll give you a release for him, after paying the fees. You better move to Massachusetts, and preach that doctrine to William Lloyd Garrison and Abby Kelly.”
“Give me none of your impudence, or your low insults. You may protect yourself from personal danger by your own consciousness that you are beneath the laws of honor; but that will not save you from what you deserve, if you repeat your language. Our moderation is our protection, while such unwise restrictions as you would enforce, fan the flame of danger to our own households,” said the colonel, evidently yielding to his impulses; while Mr. Grimshaw sat trembling, and began to make a slender apology, saying that the language was forced upon him, because the colonel had overstepped the bounds of propriety in his demands.
“I'm somewhat astonished at your demand, colonel, for you don't seem to comprehend the law, and the imperative manner in which I'm bound to carry it out. Shipowners should get white stewards, if they want to avoid all this difficulty. I know the nature of the case, but we can't be accountable for storms, shipwrecks, old vessels, and all these things. I'll go and see the fellow to-morrow, and tell the jailer-he's a pattern of kindness, and that's why I got him for jailer-to give him good rations and keep his room clean,” said Grimshaw, getting up and looking among some old books that lay on a dusty shelf. At length he found the one, and drawing it forth, commenced brushing the dust from it with a dust-brush, and turning his tobacco-quid. After brushing the old book for a length of time, he gave it a scientific wipe with his coat-sleeve, again sat down, and commenced turning over its pages.
“It's in here, somewhere,” said he, wetting his finger and thumb at every turn.
“What's in there, pray? You don't think I've practised at the Charleston bar all my life without knowing a law which has called up so many questions?” inquired the colonel.