WASHING- 'don't let them sit with the whites), on the railroad as we TON: 1842. C. D. το J. F. Incidents of slavelife. Impossible to be silent on slavery. with a 'went there, were a mother and family, whom the steamer was conveying away, to sell; retaining the man (the 'husband and father I mean) on his plantation. The 'children cried the whole way. Yesterday, on board 'the boat, a slave owner and two constables were our 'fellow-passengers. They were coming here in search of 'two negroes who had run away on the previous day. On 'the bridge at Richmond there is a notice against fast 'driving over it, as it is rotten and crazy: penalty-for 'whites, five dollars; for slaves, fifteen stripes. My heart 'is lightened as if a great load had been taken from it, 'when I think that we are turning our backs on this 'accursed and detested system. I really don't think I could have borne it any longer. It is all very well to say "be silent on the subject." They won't let you be silent. "They will ask you what you think of it; and will expatiate on slavery as if it were one of the greatest blessings of 'mankind. "It's not," said a hard, bad-looking fellow to 'me the other day, "it's not the interest of a man to use "his slaves ill. It's damned nonsense that you hear "in England."-I told him quietly that it was not a Discussion 'man's interest to get drunk, or to steal, or to game, or to 'indulge in any other vice, but he did indulge in it for 'all that. That cruelty, and the abuse of irresponsible 'power, were two of the bad passions of human nature, 'with the gratification of which, considerations of interest or of ruin had nothing whatever to do; and that, while 'every candid man must admit that even a slave might 'be happy enough with a good master, all human beings slaveholder. 'knew that bad masters, cruel masters, and masters WASHING 'who disgraced the form they bore, were matters of TON: 1842. C. D. to J. F. experience and history, whose existence was as undis'puted as that of slaves themselves. He was a little taken 'aback by this, and asked me if I believed in the bible. 'Yes, I said, but if any man could prove to me that it 'sanctioned slavery, I would place no further credence in it. "Well then," he said, "by God, sir, the niggers must be "kept down, and the whites have put down the coloured "people wherever they have found them." "That's the "whole question" said I. "Yes, and by God," says he, "the British had better not stand out on that point when "Lord Ashburton comes over, for I never felt so warlike as "I do now, and that's a fact." I was obliged to accept a 'public supper in this Richmond, and I saw plainly enough, Feeling of 'there, that the hatred which these Southern States bear England. 'to us as a nation has been fanned up and revived again 'by this Creole business, and can scarcely be exaggerated. 'We were desperately tired at Richmond, as South to at Rich we went to a great many places, and received a very 'great number of visitors. We appoint usually two hours Levees 'in every day for this latter purpose, and have our room so mond. 'full at that period that it is difficult to move or breathe. 'Before we left Richmond, a gentleman told me, when I 'really was so exhausted that I could hardly stand, that "three people of great fashion" were much offended by 'having been told, when they called last evening, that I was tired and not visible, then, but would be "at home" 'from twelve to two next day! Another gentleman (no 'doubt of great fashion also) sent a letter to me two hours WASHING- 1842. C. D. to J. F. One more banquet accepted. ' after I had gone to bed, preparatory to rising at four next 'morning, with instructions to the slave who brought it to 'knock me up and wait for an answer! 'I am going to break my resolution of accepting no 'more public entertainments, in favour of the originators of the printed document overleaf. They live upon the 'confines of the Indian territory, some two thousand miles or more west of New York! Think of my dining there! 'And yet, please God, the festival will come off-I should 'say about the 12th or 15th of next month.' The printed document was a series of resolutions, moved at a public meeting attended by all the principal citizens, judges, professors, and doctors, of St. Louis, urgently inviting, to that city of the Far West, the distinguished writer then the guest of America, eulogizing his genius, and tendering to him their warmest hospitalities. He was at Baltimore when he closed his letter. 'BALTIMORE, Tuesday, March 22nd. 'I have a great diffidence in running counter to any 'impression formed by a man of Maclise's genius, on a sub'ject he has fully considered.' (Referring apparently to picture of the Play-scene 'But I quite agree with some remark by myself on the My gift of constantly carry in my great-coat pocket the Shakespeare Shake speare. 'you bought for me in Liverpool. What an unspeakable source of delight that book is to me! 'Your Ontario letter, I found here to-night: sent on 'by the vigilant and faithful Colden, who makes every BALTI MORE: 1842. C. D. to J. F. from home 'thing having reference to us, or our affairs, a labour of 'the heartiest love. We devoured its contents, greedily. 'Good Heaven, my dear fellow, how I miss you! and 'how I count the time 'twixt this and coming home again. 'Shall I ever forget the day of our parting at Liverpool! Letters 'when even became jolly and radiant in his sympathy 'with our separation! Never, never shall I forget that 'time. Ah! how seriously I thought then, and how seriously I have thought many, many times since, of the 'terrible folly of ever quarrelling with a true friend, on 'good for nothing trifles! Every little hasty word that 'has ever passed between us, rose up before me like a reproachful ghost. At this great distance, I seem to look back upon any miserable small interruption of our affec'tionate intercourse, though only for the instant it has 'never outlived, with a sort of pity for myself as if I were ' another creature. 'I have bought another accordion. The steward lent 'me one, on the passage out, and I regaled the ladies' 'cabin with my performances. You can't think with 'what feeling I play Home Sweet Home every night, or 'how pleasantly sad it makes us..... And so God bless 'you..... I leave space for a short postscript before seal'ing this, but it will probably contain nothing. The dear, 'dear children! what a happiness it is to know that they are in such hands. 'P.S. Twenty-third March, 1842. Nothing new. And 'all well. I have not heard that the Columbia is in, but 'she is hourly expected. Washington Irving has come VOL. I. Self-reproach of a noble nature. BALTI- 1842. C. D. to J. F. Irving's leavetaking. C. D. to Mr. Lanman. on for another leave-taking,* and dines with me to-day. 'We start for the West, at half after eight to-morrow 'morning. I send you a newspaper, the most respectable ' in the States, with a very just copyright article.' At his second visit to America, when in Washington in February 1868, Dickens, replying to a letter in which Irving was named, thus describes the last meeting and leave-taking to which he alludes above. 'Your reference to 'my dear friend, Washington Irving, renews the vivid impressions reawakened ' in my mind at Baltimore but the other day. I saw his fine face for the last 'time in that city. He came there from New York to pass a day or two with " me before I went westward; and they were made among the most memorable of my life by his delightful fancy and genial humor. Some unknown admirer ' of his books and mine sent to the hotel a most enormous mint-julep, wreathed 'with flowers. We sat, one on either side of it, with great solemnity (it filled a respectably-sized round table), but the solemnity was of very short dura'tion. It was quite an enchanted julep, and carried us among innumerable 'people and places that we both knew. The julep held out far into the night, ' and my memory never saw him afterwards otherwise than as bending over it, 'with his straw, with an attempted air of gravity (after some anecdote involving some wonderfully droll and delicate observation of character), and then, 'as his eye caught mine, melting into that captivating laugh of his, which was the brightest and best I have ever heard.' |