[Sidenote: "Superior to Niggers"]
I was traveling with a friend from the South who is one of the best
fellows that I know. He is kind, considerate, chivalrous, and all that
characterizes a Southern gentleman; but he has a false idea of dignity
in some respects, and precipitates controversy sometimes without cause,
and when he himself is to blame in the matter. We were discussing the
theory of Emancipation, and he agreed with me on almost all of the
points at issue, in fact to such an extent that I felt that he absorbed
the idea fully, when he said: "Yes, it is true, and I believe in it,
and I think I have practiced it somewhat; but I can't stand
impertinence from niggers; they rub up against me all the time, and
annoy me terribly, especially these Pullman porters." "Yes," said I in
reply, "you have attained pretty good self-control and have reason to
be proud of it; you are pretty nearly a perfect man; the only thing you
are not superior to is a nigger." The rebuke impressed him as a truism
that had never occurred to him in that light before.
The truth of the matter is, and I have had both experiences to prove it
to my own satisfaction, antagonism invites antagonism. A fostered
dislike or an anticipated friction sends out a shaft in advance which
rebounds and rebounds with quickening vibrations. If one is looking for
impertinence from any source he will be pretty sure to find it; but if
he carries a mind and heart free from prejudice, which is the condition
of Emancipation, the shaft will not be unloosed, and the disturbing
vibrations will not occur. I do not believe that Pullman porters were
ever discourteous to Phillips Brooks, or Edward Everett Hale, or
Professor Swing or men of their caliber of mind; or if they were, I do
not believe that the impertinence made any impression on them except to
excite pity.