monomania of the
North has fallen upon you, and that you have it, as it seemed to me, in
one of its worst forms. Some it makes fierce, others, flat, according as
the victim is, naturally, more or less amiable.

Your mother gave you in charge to me in her last sickness, and I must do
all in my power for your best good. I have, therefore, told you some
things which I have seen and considered. These you must now add to the
facts of your "inductive philosophy." Your definition of "pro-slavery,"
and "friends of oppression," is a fair illustration of a prevailing
state of mind at the North:--"Pro-slavery--_i.e._, do not agree with me
in my manner of viewing and treating the subject." This you will
correct. Excuse my freedom, but you have no father nor mother now, to
advise and guide you, and you must let me be your Mentor in some things.
I shall keep your letter and let you see it perhaps ten years hence. Be
careful what newspapers you read. Those which abound with low,
opprobrious language about the South and Southerners, avoid. There are
some low Southerners about here who go around buying up refractory and
vicious negroes; they are the dregs of society; but I have listened,
with others, at the North, to men, on the subject of "freedom," who, I
think, would take kindly to this business, and they would be as hearty
in it as they are now in vilifying it. The "Legrees" are not confined to
the South. Do not incline your ear to those who systematically inveigh
against slavery, making it their principal business. You will invariably
find that there is something false and wrong in their principles as well
as spirit. Be careful to what influences you commit your thoughts and
your taste.

You need not become a friend of oppression; you need not approve of
"auction-blocks," and "separation of families;" slavery can exist when
these are done away. Until you are appointed and commissioned as a
minister of righteousness to Southern Christians and ministers, I advise
you to blot slavery out of the list of topics about which you are called
to express the least concern. The South will work out the problem for
herself, with the help of that God who has evidently appointed her to do
a great work for the African race, and all the more perfectly and
speedily as our Northern people let her entirely alone as to the moral
relations of the subject.

You subscribe yourself, "Yours for the slave;" I shall subscribe myself,
"Yours for preaching th