“If that be your doctrine,” said he, “we shall soon agree.  Now apply the golden rule to slavery.  Are there any circumstances in which you would yourself be willing to be ’owned’?”

“Certainly,” I replied.

He rose, and put some lumps of coal upon the fire with the tongs, and said, “I presume you mean what you say, and that you do not wish to trifle with the subject.”

“Mr. North,” said I, “would you be willing that any one should make you head-cook in a hotel, engineer in a steamboat, or keeper of a floating light?”

“No, Sir,” said he.

“You would, Mr. North,” said I, “under given circumstances.  You would petition for such places, get recommendations for them, and count yourself perfectly happy, if you succeeded in obtaining them.

“Now look at the slaves.  They are a foreign race, we are their civil superiors, and unless we amalgamate, we intend to remain so.  While we are in this relation, it is a privilege to the blacks to have owners, but they must use their ownership according to the golden rule.  When this is done, the condition of the blacks, in their present relation to us, is happy.”

“How often,” said he, “do you suppose that it is done?”

“That,” said I, “is another and a very interesting question, which we will consider soon.  You took the ground, as I understood you, that the law of love would prevent any one from holding a fellow-creature as a slave.  I reply that it would be in perfect accordance with it, as the blacks at the South are now situated, for the whites to be their humane owners.  But pray what do you mean by ‘owning’ a human being?”

“I mean,” said he, “having the right to abuse them, domineer over them, work them as cattle, sell them, and—­”

“Did this Southern lady,” said I, while he paused for more words, “ever acquire a right with her ownership to treat Kate so?”

“Her laws,” said he, “give her a right to punish her; and such irresponsible power is fearful.  She could whip her to death and”—­

“And be punished for it,” said I, “as surely as you would be for whipping a servant to death.”

“She is at liberty to punish more severely than the case warrants,” said he, “and then she can shield herself under the laws.”

“I presume,” said I, “a Northern parent never gives a hasty box on the ear, never strikes one passionate blow in the chastisement, never shakes a child a single trill beyond the due harmony of parental affection, never scourges it with the tongue to momentary madness!  What a dreadful thing parental authority is!  Would it not be well to abolish the authority of parents over children!  Indeed, would it not be well to go further, and interdict the public lands of the United States from being settled; for as surely as men live there, every form of wickedness will, in its turn, be perpetrated.  How much better the calm and holy silence of the woods and fields, than if the tumultuous passions of men should roll over them!”