rfect representative of the North, on
the subject of slavery? Does not ultra anti-slavery find or make
everybody, as the Aunt says, either fierce or flat?"

"You do not believe so," said he.

"Neither do you believe," said I, "that where Christianity has exerted
the same influence on the hearts of men and women as on yours, and all
the humanizing and elevating influences of society prevail, that letter
is a rare product."

"I cannot believe," said he, "that one can own a fellow-creature, hold
God's image as property, and be a true Christian. This lady is an
exception which does not destroy the general rule."

"My dear sir," said I, "you are an abstractionist. You make the best
possible condition under the sun your standard, to which you would make
all men and things conform, instead of allowing for the vast
inequalities, the necessities, the mutual dependence, the long
historical conditions of men, as individuals and races. A race or class
of human beings may be in such a condition, that being 'owned' by a
superior race will be, in their circumstances, a real mercy and a great
blessing."

"O my dear sir," said he, "I weep over the degradation of your moral
sense. 'Owning a fellow-creature!' I would not hold property in a human
being 'for all the wealth that sinews bought and sold have ever
earned.'"

"Thousands of men and women," I replied, "as good in the sight of God as
you or I, think otherwise. There is nothing in the relation of ownership
to a human being which in itself is sinful, or wrong."

"If it is your purpose," said he, "to argue in favor of oppression,
perhaps we had better not pursue the conversation."

"Uncharitableness, false judgments, self-righteousness," said I,
"condemning a whole people for the sins of a few, are as truly
'oppression' as anything can be. I plead for no wrongs; I justify no
selfishness in the relation of master and servant; I regard the golden
rule of Christ as the law by which slave-holding should be regulated in
every instance."

"I never expected," said he, "to live long enough to hear of the golden
rule being applied to slavery! It would be like applying light to
darkness, truth to falsehood, holiness to sin."

"By what rule," I inquired, "do you think the lady is habitually
governed who wrote the letter which has interested you so much?"

"Why," said he, "there are good people under every iniquitous system.
These exceptional cases are not the rule of judgment with