f race--at all times the most bitter and unreasonable of
animosities--is being aroused all over the land. And the free States
take the lead in injustice to them. Witness a late vote of Connecticut
on the suffrage question. The efforts of government to protect the
rights of these poor defenseless creatures are about as energetic as
such efforts always have been and always will be while human nature
remains what it is. For a while the obvious rights of the weaker
party will be confessed, with some show of consideration, in public
speeches; they will be paraded by philanthropic sentimentalists, to
give point to their eloquence; they will be here and there sustained
in governmental measures, when there is no strong temptation to the
contrary, and nothing better to be done; but the moment that
political combinations begin to be formed, all the rights and
interests of this helpless people will be bandied about as so many
make-weights in the political scale. Any troublesome lion will have
a negro thrown to him to keep him quiet. All their hopes will be
dashed to the ground by the imperious Southern white, no longer
feeling for them even the interest of a master, and regarding them
with a mixture of hatred and loathing as the cause of all his
reverses. Then if, driven to despair, they seek to defend themselves
by force, they will be crushed by the power of the government and
ground to powder, as the weak have always been under the heel of the
strong.

"So much for our abolition of slavery. As to our material prosperity,
it consists of an inflated paper currency, an immense debt, a giddy,
foolhardy spirit of speculation and stock-gambling, and a perfect
furor of extravagance, which is driving everybody to live beyond his
means, and casting contempt on the republican virtues of simplicity
and economy.

"As to advancement in morals, there never was so much intemperance in
our people before, and the papers are full of accounts of frauds,
defalcations, forgeries, robberies, assassinations, and arsons.
Against this tide of corruption the various organized denominations of
religion do nothing effectual. They are an army shut up within their
own intrenchments, holding their own with difficulty, and in no
situation to turn back the furious assaults of the enemy."

"In short," said Jenny, "according to your showing, the whole country
is going to destruction. Now, if things really are so bad, if you
really believe all you have been sa