“But the southern men swagger and make a parade of their chivalry, ’Squire, on the other hand!”
“Quite true; but, with them, there is a strong provocation. It is a matter of life and death to the south; and the comity of which I spoke requires great moderation on our part. As for the threats of dissolution, of which we have had so many, like the cry of ‘wolf,’ they have worn themselves out, and are treated with indifference.”
“The threat is still used, Mr. Dunscomb!”
“Beyond a doubt, Timms; but of one thing you may rest well assured—if ever there be a separation between the free and the slave States of this Union, the wedge will be driven home by northern hands; not by indirection, but coolly, steadily, and with a thorough northern determination to open the seam. There will be no fuss about chivalry, but the thing will be done. I regard the measure as very unlikely to happen, the Mississippi and its tributaries binding the States together, to say nothing of ancestry, history, and moral ties, in a way to render a rupture very difficult to effect; but, should it come at all, rely on it, it will come directly from the north. I am sorry to say there is an impatience of the threats and expedients that have so much disfigured southern policy, that have set many at the north to ‘calculating the value;’ and thousands may now be found where ten years since it would not have been easy to meet with one, who deem separation better than union with slavery. Still, the general feeling of the north is passive; and I trust it will so continue.”
“Look at the laws for the recovery of fugitives, ’Squire, and the manner in which they are administered.”
“Bad enough, I grant you, and full of a want of good faith. Go to the bottom of this subject, Timms, or let it alone altogether. Some men will tell you that slavery is a sin, and contrary to revealed religion. This I hold to be quite untrue. At all events, if it be a sin, it is a sin to give the son the rich inheritance of the father, instead of dividing it among the poor; to eat a dinner while a hungrier man than yourself is within sound of your voice; or, indeed, to do anything that is necessary and agreeable, when the act may be still more necessary to, or confer greater pleasure on, another. I believe in a Providence; and I make little doubt that African slavery is an important feature in God’s Laws, instead of being disobedience to them.—But enough of this, Timms—you will court popularity, which is your Archimedean lever, and forget all I tell you. Is Mary Monson in greater favour now than when I last saw you?”
“The question is not easily answered, sir. She pays well, and money is a powerful screw!”
“I do not inquire what you do with her money,” said Dunscomb, with the evasion of a man who knew that it would not do to probe every weak spot in morals, any more than it would do to inflame the diseases of the body; “but, I own, I should like to know if our client has any suspicions of its uses?”
Timms now cast a furtive glance behind him, and edged his chair nearer to his companion, in a confidential way, as if he would trust him with a private opinion that he should keep religiously from all others.
“Not only does she know all about it,” he answered, with a knowing inclination of the head, “but she enters into the affair, heart and hand. To my great surprise, she has even made two or three suggestions that were capital in their way! Capital! yes, sir; quite capital! If you were not so stiff in your practice, ’Squire, I should delight to tell you all about it. She’s sharp, you may depend on it! She’s wonderfully sharp!”