“I find,” observed a grave-looking New-Yorker, who until now had not opened his mouth, except for the purpose of admitting the julep, “that our black servants are getting worse and worse every day ever since that bigoted scoundrel T*** has commenced preaching abolition. Those black devils have always been a nuisance; but now ‘a respectable white man’ can hardly walk up and down Broadway of a Sunday afternoon without being jostled off the side-walk by one of their desperate gangs.”
“And it is still worse in Philadelphia,” observed Major ***, “owing to the philanthropy of our quakers. One of those black beasts, not more than a week ago, actually eyed my sister through a quizzing-glass as she was walking in Chestnut-street, accompanied by her younger sister.”
“Good God!” cried the New-Yorker, “has it come to this? Must our respectable females be insulted in the streets by a set of dastardly slaves!”
“I can hardly believe it,” said a Virginian, who appeared to be displeased with the turn the conversation had taken. “The example must have been set him by some white person. Your Philadelphia dandies have, the whole live-long day, no other amusement but staring women out of countenance.”
“Well explained!” ejaculated a young man who had just returned from Paris; “a negro is a mere ape,—he is but a link between man and monkey. C’est en effet un singe dégénéré.”
“Witty dog!” said the Philadelphian; “just returned from France!”
“For Heaven’s sake!” cried the Virginian, “let us not talk about negroes and abolition. I am resolved never to mention the subject again to friend or foe. If any of those emancipation preachers ever comes to my plantation, I have left the strictest order with my overseer to hang him on the spot. My neighbours are resolved to do the same, and I trust to God the custom will become general throughout the country.”
“Bravo!” exclaimed the Philadelphian,—“Virginia for ever!”
“You may well drink to Virginia,” exclaimed the gentleman from that state; “it is the pearl of the Union!”
“So it is, so it is!” shouted the company. “It has produced the greatest men in the United States!”