Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/397

 Reminiscences of the. Sunny South.

��381

��making a fight to perpetuate slavery, and were comparatively free from sec- tional spirit. But those whose world was bounded by home and neighbor- hood surroundings, seemed as a class to understand only that their proper- ty and homes were to be destroyed.

During a trip on the river, after the nomination of Lincoln, it was painfull}' significant to me to hear the expressions of the ladies, some of wiiom were city residents, and might have been well read in Southern views and interpretations through publica- tions. The attitude of all with one exception was that the South was threatened by a violation of constitu- tional rights, to be subject to the ag- gressive fanaticism of Abolitionists, and exposed to the untamable lust of the freed negro.

The lady referred to was about seventy years of age, and a widow of the man who edited and published the first newspaper established in Alabama, forty years previously. She was an enthusiastic Unionist, and a clear-headed person with very good conversational powers. We were en- tertained for some hours in the ladies' cabin by her arguments, and rehear- sal of the protection of Southern sla- very by the U. S. sfovernment.

Men came from all parts of the boat and listened quietly to the earn- est pleading of this patriotic woman for peace and loyalty. Some ques- tions were asked, evidently with the expectation of embarrassing her, but her keen memory and extensive knowledge of her country's history made her master of the situation. There was no vrord of disrespect, hardly one of positive dissent from her claims.

��Probably few if any of the incip- ient Confederate soldiers listening to her could have answered her argu- ments intelligently, or refuted her logic. The thought occurred to me with a pang of foreboding, how much suffering and cost the country might escape if the pleading arguments of that wise matron could pi-evail to bring the terrible problem to a peace- ful and reasonable solution.

After this conversation, as I was sitting at the piano, a bride of sixteen years, resplendent in beauty and dia- monds, leaned affectionately towards me, standing at my side, and said, " You do n't believe in the South sub- mitting to the Abolitionists, do you t " As I did not instantly respond, she continued eagerly, " You 're a South- erner, are n't you ? "

"I was born and 'raised' very near to Canada," I replied, " but I love ray whole country, and know no North, no South, no East, no West. It makes my heart ache to think my grandfather's prophecy may be ful- filled. When I was a little child he used to say ' slavery would have to be abolished if we had a war to do it.' I wish the people of the whole country could be brought together, and shake hands, for then we could n't have a war."

The conception in the minds of some as to what an Abolitionist might be was so grotesque as to be amus- ing. A young Confederate, who had been stationed at Fort Morgan afte " one old darkle, a dog, and a mule" had been taken by Confederate au- thority, came home to nurse a flesh- wound in his hand. He was given to lively conjectures of the more serious suffering that severe wounds might

�� �