“What effect would such a course have had?”

“I can say only what I think.  I believe that England would have recognized us.  The North, too, would have been disarmed, in a measure.  In fact, the great bugaboo that brought on the war would have been laid at rest.  The North would have been eager to conciliate the South, and it would have become possible to reconstruct the Union with clear definitions of the sovereignty of the States.”

“I remember your telling me long ago that you would favour a gradual emancipation.”

“Yes; our form of slavery is not bad, it is true, Jones; in fact, there is great justification for it.  It is too universal, however.  It does not give enough opportunity for a slave to develop, and to make a future for himself.  Still, we have some grand men among the slaves.  Many of them would suffer death for the interest of their masters’ families.  Then, too, we have in the South a type unknown in the rest of the world since feudalism:  we have in Virginia, in South Carolina, in Louisiana, reproductions of the old nobility.  The world is richer for such men.  The general condition of the slaves is good.  We know that the negro is an inferior race.  We have done him no injustice by giving him a small share in a civilization which his kings could never know.  He was a slave at home; he is less a slave here.  He has been contented.  Witness his docility, his kindness even, to our wives and children while his masters are at war, seemingly to perpetuate his bonds.  Such conduct deserves recognition.  I would say that a system of rewards should be planned by which a worthy negro, ambitious to become free, could by meritorious conduct achieve his freedom.  But this act of Lincoln’s is monstrous.  It is good for nobody.  A race of slaves, suddenly become free, is a race of infants with the physical force of men.  What would become of them?  Suppose the North should succeed.  Suppose the Confederate armies disbanded, and the States back in the Union or held as territories.  Has anybody the least idea that the whites of the South would tolerate the new dignity of their former slaves?  The condition would be but the beginning of race hatred that would grow into active hostility, and would never end.  The whites would band together and punish negro offences more severely than ever.  The negroes could not combine.  The result would be cruelty to the black man; his condition would be far worse than before.  Even supposing that Northern armies should indefinitely occupy all our territory; even supposing that our own people should be driven out and our lands given to the slaves—­what would become of them?  We know their character.  They look not one day ahead.  There would be famine, riot, pestilence, anarchy.  And the worst men of the race would hold the rest in terror.  Immorality would be at a premium, sir.  The race would lose what it had gained.  But, on the other hand, put into practice a plan for gradual freedom based on good