Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/303

290 wife, the tears of the children, moved not the master whom justice had also failed to touch. As the boat which contained poor John shot by the point of land where he had lived, his wife stood upon the shore, and held her babies up for him to look upon for the last time. Descending the Mississippi, the captain of the boat had the river fever, lost his sight for the time, and John took the command. One night, far down the Mississippi, he found himself on board a boat with the three kidnappers who had him in their power, and intended to sell him. They were asleep below—the captain still blind with the disease—he watchful on deck. "I crept down barefoot," said John. "There they lay in their bunks, all fast asleep. They had money, and I none. I had done them no harm, but they had torn me from my wife, from my children, from my liberty. I stole up noiselessly, and came back again, the boat's axe in my hand. I lifted it up, and grit my teeth together, and was about to strike: and it came into my mind, 'No murderer hath eternal life.' I put the axe back in its place, and was sold into slavery. What would you have done in such a case?" I told him that I thought I should have sent the kidnappers to their own place first, and then trusted that the act would be imputed to me for righteousness by an all-righteous God! I need not ask what Mr. Garrison would do in like case. I think his Saxon blood would move swift enough to sweep off his non-resistant creed, and the three kidnappers would have started on their final journey before he asked, "Where shall I go?" John's story is also the story of Africa. The stroke of an axe would have settled the matter long ago. But the black man would not strike. One day, perhaps, he will do what yonder monument commends.

At this moment, we have perhaps 4,500,000 men of African descent in the United States; say 4,000,000 slaves, 500,000 free. They are with us, are of us; America cannot be rid of them if she would. Shall they continue slaves, or be set free? What consequences will follow either result? This is the great question for America. It is the question of industry, of morals, of religion; it is the immediate question of politics. It does not concern the 4,000,000 slaves alone, but also each of the 26,000,000 Caucasian freemen. On it depends the success or the