MR. JEKYL'S OPINIONS.
After the return of the gentlemen to the drawing-room, Nina, at the
request of Tom, followed him and Mr. Jekyl into the library.
"Mr. Jekyl is going to make some statements to us, Nina, about our
property in Mississippi, which, if they turn out as he expects, will set
us up in the world," said Tom.
Nina threw herself carelessly into the leather arm-chair by the window,
and looked out of it.
"You see," said Mr. Jekyl, also seating himself, and pulling out the
stiff points of his collar, "having done law business for your father,
and known, in that way, a good deal about the family property, I have
naturally always felt a good deal of interest in it; and you remember
your father's sister, Mrs. Stewart, inherited, on the death of her
husband, a fine estate in Mississippi."
"I remember," said Tom,--"well, go on."
"Well, she died, and left it all to her son. Well, he, it seems, like
some other young men, lived in a very reprehensible union with a
handsome quadroon girl, who was his mother's maid; and she, being an
artful creature, I suppose, as a great many of them are, got such an
ascendency over him, that he took her up to Ohio, and married her, and
lived there with her some years, and had two children by her. Well, you
see, he had a deed of emancipation recorded for her in Mississippi, and
just taking her into Ohio, set her free by the laws of that state. Well,
you see, he thought he'd fixed it so that the thing couldn't be undone,
and she thought so too; and I understand she's a pretty shrewd
woman--has a considerable share of character, or else she wouldn't have
done just what she has; for, you see, he died about six months ago, and
left the plantation and all the property to her and her children, and
she has been so secure that she has actually gone and taken possession.
You see, she is so near white, you must know that there isn't one in
twenty would think what she was,--and the people round there, actually,
some of them, had forgotten all about it, and didn't know but what she
was a white woman from Ohio; and so, you see, the thing never would have
been looked into at all, if I hadn't happened to have been down there.
But, you see, she turned off an overseer that had managed the place,
because the people complained of him; and I happened to fall in with the
man, and he began telling me his story, and, after a little inquiry, I
found who these people were. Well, sir, I just went to one of the first
lawyers, for I suspected there was false play; and we looked over the
emancipation laws together, and we found out that, as the law stood, the
deed of emancipation was no more than so much waste paper. And so, you
see, she and her children are just as much slaves as any on her
plantation; and the whole property, which is worth a hundred thousand
dollars, belongs to your family. I rode out with him, and looked over
the place, and got introduced to her and her children, and looked them
over. Considered as property, I should call them a valuable lot. She is
past forty, but she don't look older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight,
I should say. She is a very good-looking woman, and then, I'm told, a
very capable woman. Well, her price in the market might range between
one thousand and fifteen hundred dollars. Smalley said he had seen no
better article sold for two thousand dollars; but, then, he said, they
had to give a false certificate as to the age,--and that I couldn't hear
of, for I never countenance anything like untruth. Then, the woman's
children: she has got two fine-looking children as I have ever
seen--almost white. The boy is about ten years old; the little girl,
about four. You may be sure I was pretty careful not to let on, because
I consider the woman and children are an important part of the property,
and, of course, nothing had better be said about it, lest she should be
off before we are ready to come down on them. Now, you see, you Gordons
are the proper owners of this whole property; there isn't the slightest
doubt in my mind that you ought to put in your claim immediately. The
act of emancipation was contrary to law, and, though the man meant well,
yet it amounted to a robbery of the heirs. I declare, it rather raised
my indignation to see that creature so easy in the possession of
property which of right belongs to you. Now, if I have only the consent
of the heirs, I can go on and commence operations immediately."
Nina had been sitting regarding Mr. Jekyl with a fixed and determined
expression of countenance. When he had finished, she said to him,--
"Mr. Jekyl, I understand you are an elder in the church; is that true?"
"Yes, Miss Gordon, I have that privilege," said Mr. Jekyl, his sharp,
business tone subsiding into a sigh.
"Because," said Nina, "I am a wild young girl, and don't profess to know
much about religion; but I want you to tell me, as a Christian, if you
think it would be _right_ to take this woman and children, and her
property."
"Why, certainly, my dear Miss Gordon; isn't it right that every one
should have his own property? I view things simply with the eye of the
law; and, in the eye of the law, that woman and her children are as much
your property as the shoe on your foot; there is no manner of doubt of
it."
"I should think," said Nina, "that you might see with the eye of the
Gospel, sometimes! Do you think, Mr. Jekyl, that doing this is doing as
I should wish to be done by, if I were in the place of this woman?"
"My dear Miss Gordon, young ladies of fine feeling, at your time of
life, are often confused on this subject by a wrong application of the
Scripture language. Suppose I were a robber, and had possession of your
property? Of course, I shouldn't wish to be made to give it up. But
would it follow that the golden rule obliged the lawful possessor not to
take it from me? This woman is your property; this estate is your
property, and she is holding it as unlawfully as a robber. Of course,
she won't want to give it up; but right is right, notwithstanding."
Like many other young persons, Nina could _feel_ her way out of
sophistry much sooner than she could think it out; and she answered to
all this reasoning,--
"After all, I can't think it would be right."
"Oh, confound the humbug!" said Tom; "who cares whether it is right or
not? The fact is, Nin, to speak plain sense to you, you and I both are
deuced hard up for money, and want all we can get; and what's the use of
being more religious than the very saints themselves at our time of day?
Mr. Jekyl is a pious man--one of the tallest kind! He thinks this is all
right, and why need we set ourselves all up? He has talked with Uncle
John, and he goes in for it. As for my part, I am free to own I don't
care whether it's right or not! I'll do it if I can. Might makes
right,--that's my doctrine!"
"Why," said Mr. Jekyl, "I have examined the subject, and I haven't the
slightest doubt that slavery is a divinely-appointed institution, and
that the rights of the masters are sanctioned by God; so, however much I
may naturally feel for this woman, whose position is, I must say, an
unfortunate one, still it is my duty to see that the law is properly
administered in the case."
"All I have to say, Mr. Jekyl," said Nina, "is just this: that I won't
have anything to do with this matter; for, if I can't prove it's wrong,
I shall always feel it is."
"Nina, how ridiculous!" said Tom.
"I have said my say," said Nina, as she rose and left the room.
"Very natural,--fine feelings, but uninstructed," said Mr. Jekyl.
"Certainly, we pious folks know a trick worth two of that, don't we?"
said Tom. "I say, Jekyl, this sister of mine is a pretty rapid little
case, I can tell you, as you saw by the way she circumvented us, this
morning. She is quite capable of upsetting the whole dish, unless we go
about it immediately. You see, her pet nigger, this Harry, is this
woman's brother; and if she gave him the word, he'd write at once, and
put her on the alarm. You and I had better start off to-morrow, before
this Harry comes back. I believe he is to be gone a few days. It's no
matter whether she consents to the suit or not. She don't need to know
anything about it."
"Well," said Jekyl, "I advise you to go right on, and have the woman and
children secured. It's a perfectly fair, legal proceeding. There has
been an evident evasion of the law of the state, by means of which your
family are defrauded of an immense sum. At all events, it will be tried
in an open court of justice, and she will be allowed to appear by her
counsel. It's a perfectly plain, above-board proceeding; and, as the
young lady has shown such fine feelings, there's the best reason to
suppose that the fate of this woman would be as good in her hands as in
her own."
Mr. Jekyl was not now talking to convince Tom Gordon, but himself; for,
spite of himself, Nina's questions had awakened in his mind a sufficient
degree of misgiving to make it necessary for him to pass in review the
arguments by which he generally satisfied himself. Mr. Jekyl was a
theologian, and a man of principle. His metaphysical talent, indeed,
made him a point of reference among his Christian brethren; and he spent
much of his leisure time in reading theological treatises. His favorite
subject of all was the nature of true virtue; and this, he had fixed in
his mind, consisted in a love of the greatest good. According to his
theology, right consisted in creating the greatest amount of happiness;
and every creature had rights to be happy in proportion to his capacity
of enjoyment or being. He whose capacity was ten pounds had a right to
place his own happiness before that of him who had five, because, in
that way, five pounds more of happiness would exist in the general
whole. He considered the right of the Creator to consist in the fact
that he had a greater amount of capacity than all creatures put
together, and, therefore, was bound to promote his own happiness before
all of them put together. He believed that the Creator made himself his
first object in all that He did; and, descending from Him, all creatures
were to follow the same rule, in proportion to their amount of being;
the greater capacity of happiness always taking precedence of the less.
Thus, Mr. Jekyl considered that the Creator brought into the world
yearly myriads of human beings with no other intention than to make them
everlastingly miserable; and that this was right, because his capacity
of enjoyment being greater than all theirs put together, He had a right
to gratify himself in this way.
Mr. Jekyl's belief in slavery was founded on his theology. He assumed
that the white race had the largest amount of being; therefore, it had a
right to take precedence of the black. On this point he held long and
severe arguments with his partner, Mr. Israel McFogg, who, belonging to
a different school of theology, referred the whole matter to no natural
fitness, but to a divine decree, by which it pleased the Creator in the
time of Noah to pronounce a curse upon Canaan. The fact that the African
race did _not_ descend from Canaan was, it is true, a slight difficulty
in the chain of the argument; but theologians are daily in the habit of
surmounting much greater ones. Either way, whether by metaphysical
fitness or Divine decree, the two partners attained the same practical
result.
Mr. Jekyl, though a coarse-grained man, had started from the hands of
nature no more hard-hearted or unfeeling than many others; but his mind,
having for years been immersed in the waters of law and theology, had
slowly petrified into such a steady consideration of the greatest
general good, that he was wholly inaccessible to any emotion of
particular humanity. The trembling, eager tone of pity, in which Nina
had spoken of the woman and children who were about to be made victims
of a legal process, had excited but a moment's pause. What
considerations of temporal loss and misery can shake the constancy of
the theologian who has accustomed himself to contemplate and discuss, as
a cool intellectual exercise, the eternal misery of generations?--who
worships a God that creates myriads only to glorify himself in their
eternal torments?