ht,
just, and good--seems to me to involve such a wrong to humanity, such
evil to the South, and such peril to the Union of the States, that it
was a proper occasion for speaking earnestly and decidedly.

I was altogether unprepared for the treatment I received. One year
before, I had been in the great Charleston Club, when the question
of the perpetuity of the slave-system was discussed; when, indeed, an
elaborate essay was read by one of the members, in which the ground was
taken, that the dark cloud would sink away to the southwest, to Central
America perhaps, from whence the slave population would find an exodus
across the water to Africa; and of twenty members present, seventeen
agreed with the essayist.

And I take occasion here to say, that this position of the seventeen
was mainly satisfactory to me. I would, indeed, have had the South go
farther. I would have had it take in hand the business of putting an end
to slavery, by laws [118] providing for its gradual abolition, and by
preparing the slaves for it; but I did not believe then, and do not now,
[FN: The date of this passage must be in or about 1868.-M. E. D.] that
immediate emancipation was theoretically the best plan. It was forced
upon us by the exigencies of the war. And, independently of that, such
was the infatuation of the Southern mind on the subject that there
seemed to be no prospect of its ever being brought to take that view of
it which was prevailing through the civilized and Christian world. But
if it had taken that view, and had gone about the business of preparing
for emancipation, I think the general public sentiment would have been
satisfied; and I believe the result would have been better for the
slaves, and better for the country. To be sure, things are working
better perhaps now than could have been expected, and it may turn out
that instant emancipation was the best thing. But the results of great
social changes do not immediately reveal themselves. We are feeling, for
instance, the pressure and peril of the free system in government more
than we did fifty years ago, and may have to feel and fear it more than
we do now. The freedmen are, at present, upon their good behavior, and
are acting under the influence of a previous condition. But when I look
to the future, and see them rising to wealth, culture, and refinement,
and, as human beings, entitled to consideration as much as any other,
[119] and yet forbidden intermarriage with the