THE PURPOSE.
It would be scarcely possible to describe the scene which Harry left in
the library. Tom Gordon was for a few moments stunned by the violence of
his fall, and Clayton and Mr. Jekyl at first did not know but he had
sustained some serious injury; and the latter, in his confusion, came
very near attempting his recovery, by pouring in his face the contents
of the large inkstand. Certainly, quite as appropriate a method, under
the circumstances, as the exhortations with which he had deluged Harry.
But Clayton, with more presence of mind, held his hand, and rang for
water. In a few moments, however, Tom recovered himself, and started up
furiously.
"Where is he?" he shouted, with a volley of oaths, which made Mr. Jekyl
pull up his shirt-collar, as became a good elderly gentleman,
preparatory to a little admonition.
"My young friend"--he began.
"Blast you! None of your _young friends_ to me! Where is he?"
"He has escaped," said Clayton, quietly.
"He got right out of the window," said Mr. Jekyl.
"Confound you, why didn't you stop him?" said Tom, violently.
"If that question is addressed to me," said Clayton, "I do not interfere
in your family affairs."
"You _have_ interfered, more than you ever shall again!" said Tom
roughly. "But, there's no use talking now; that fellow must be chased!
He thinks he's got away from me--we'll see! I'll make such an example of
him as shall be remembered!" He rang the bell violently. "Jim," he said,
"did you see Harry go off on my horse?"
"Yes, sah!"
"Then, why in thunder didn't you stop him?"
"I tought Mas'r Tom sent him--did so!"
"You knew better, you dog! And now, I tell you, order out the best
horses, and be on after him! And, if you don't catch him, it shall be
the worse for you!--Stay! Get _me_ a horse! I'll go myself."
Clayton saw that it was useless to remain any longer at Canema. He
therefore ordered his horse, and departed. Tom Gordon cast an evil eye
after him, as he rode away.
"I hate that fellow!" he said. "I'll make him mischief, one of these
days, if I can!"
As to Clayton, he rode away in bitterness of spirit. There are some men
so constituted that the sight of injustice, which they have no power to
remedy, is perfectly maddening to them. This is a very painful and
unprofitable constitution, so far as this world is concerned; but they
can no more help it than they can the toothache. Others may say to them,
"Why, what is it to you? You can't help it, and it's none of your
concern;" but still the fever burns on. Besides, Clayton had just passed
through one of the great crises of life. All there is in that strange
mystery of what man can feel for woman had risen like a wave within him;
and, gathering into itself, for a time, the whole force of his being,
had broken, with one dash, on the shore of death, and the waters had
flowed helplessly backward. In the great void which follows such a
crisis, the soul sets up a craving and cry for something to come in to
fill the emptiness; and while the heart says no _person_ can come into
that desolate and sacred enclosure, it sometimes embraces a _purpose_,
as in some sort a substitute.
In this manner, with solemnity and earnestness, Clayton resolved to
receive as a life-purpose a struggle with this great system of
injustice, which, like a parasitic weed, had struck its roots through
the whole growth of society, and was sucking thence its moisture and
nourishment.
As he rode through the lonely pine-woods, he felt his veins throbbing
and swelling with indignation and desire. And there arose within him
that sense of power which sometimes seems to come over man like an
inspiration, and leads him to say, "_This_ shall not be, and _this_
shall be;" as if he possessed the ability to control the crooked course
of human events. He was thankful in his heart that he had taken the
first step, by entering his public protest against this injustice, in
quitting the bar of his native state. What was next to be done, how the
evil was to be attacked, how the vague purpose fulfilled, he could not
say. Clayton was not aware, any more than others in his situation have
been, of what he was undertaking. He had belonged to an old and
respected family, and always, as a matter of course, been received in
all circles with attention, and listened to with respect. He who glides
dreamily down the glassy surface of a mighty river floats securely,
making his calculations to row upward. He knows nothing what the force
of that seemingly glassy current will be when his one feeble oar is set
against the whole volume of its waters. Clayton did not know that he was
already a marked man; that he had touched a spot, in the society where
he lived, which was vital, and which that society would never suffer to
be touched with impunity. It was the fault of Clayton, and is the fault
of all such men, that he judged mankind by himself. He could not believe
that anything, except ignorance and inattention, could make men
upholders of deliberate injustice. He thought all that was necessary was
the enlightening of the public mind, the direction of general attention
to the subject. In his way homeward he revolved in his mind immediate
measures of action. This evil should no longer be tampered with. He
would take on himself the task of combining and concentrating those
vague impulses towards good which he supposed were existing in the
community. He would take counsel of leading minds. He would give his
time to journeyings through the state; he would deliver addresses, write
in the newspapers, and do what otherwise lies in the power of a free man
who wishes to reach an utterly unjust law. Full of these determinations,
Clayton entered again his father's house, after two days of solitary
riding. He had written in advance to his parents of the death of Nina,
and had begged them to spare him any conversation on that subject; and,
therefore, on his first meeting with his mother and father, there was
that painful blank, that heavy dulness of suffering, which comes when
people meet together, feeling deeply on one absorbing subject, which
must not be named. It was a greater self-denial to his impulsive,
warm-hearted mother than to Clayton. She yearned to express sympathy; to
throw herself upon his neck; to draw forth his feelings, and mingle them
with her own. But there are some people with whom this is impossible; it
seems to be their fate that they cannot speak of what they suffer. It is
not pride nor coldness, but a kind of fatal necessity, as if the body
were a marble prison, in which the soul were condemned to bleed and
suffer alone. It is the last triumph of affection and magnanimity, when
a loving heart can respect that suffering silence of its beloved, and
allow that lonely liberty in which only some natures can find comfort.
Clayton's sorrow could only be measured by the eagerness and energy with
which, in conversation, he pursued the object with which he endeavored
to fill his mind.
"I am far from looking forward with hope to any success from your
efforts," said Judge Clayton, "the evil is so radical."
"I sometimes think," said Mrs. Clayton, "that I regret that Edward began
as he did. It was such a shock to the prejudices of people!"
"People have got to be shocked," said Clayton, "in order to wake them up
out of old absurd routine. Use paralyzes us to almost every injustice;
when people are shocked, they begin to think and to inquire."
"But would it not have been better," said Mrs. Clayton, "to have
preserved your personal influence, and thus have insinuated your
opinions more gradually? There is such a prejudice against
abolitionists; and, when a man makes any sudden demonstration on this
subject, people are apt to call him an abolitionist, and then his
influence is all gone, and he can do nothing."
"I suspect," said Clayton, "there are multitudes now in every part of
our state who are kept from expressing what they really think, and doing
what they ought to do, by this fear. Somebody must brave this mad-dog
cry; somebody must be willing to be odious; and I shall answer the
purpose as well as anybody."
"Have you any definite plan of what is to be attempted?" said his
father.
"Of course," said Clayton, "a man's first notions on such a subject must
be crude; but it occurred to me, first, to endeavor to excite the
public mind on the injustice of the present slave-law, with a view to
altering it."
"And what points would you alter?" said Judge Clayton.
"I would give to the slave the right to bring suit for injury, and to be
a legal witness in court. I would repeal the law forbidding their
education, and I would forbid the separation of families."
Judge Clayton sat pondering. At length he said, "And how will you
endeavor to excite the public mind?"
"I shall appeal first," said Clayton, "to the church and the ministry."
"You can try it," said his father.
"Why," said Mrs. Clayton, "these reforms are so evidently called for, by
justice and humanity, and the spirit of the age, that I can have no
doubt that there will be a general movement among all good people in
their favor."
Judge Clayton made no reply. There are some cases where silence is the
most disagreeable kind of dissent, because it admits of no argument in
reply.
"In my view," said Clayton, "the course of legal reform, in the first
place, should remove all those circumstances in the condition of the
slaves which tend to keep them in ignorance and immorality, and make the
cultivation of self-respect impossible; such as the want of education,
protection in the family state, and the legal power of obtaining redress
for injuries. After that, the next step would be to allow those masters
who are so disposed to emancipate, giving proper security for the good
behavior of their servants. They might then retain them as tenants.
Under this system, emancipation would go on gradually; only the best
masters would at first emancipate, and the example would be gradually
followed. The experiment would soon demonstrate the superior cheapness
and efficiency of the system of free labor; and self-interest would then
come in, to complete what principle began. It is only the first step
that costs. But it seems to me that in the course of my life I have met
with multitudes of good people, groaning in secret under the evils and
injustice of slavery, who would gladly give their influence to any
reasonable effort which promises in time to ameliorate and remove them."
"The trouble is," said Judge Clayton, "that the system, though ruinous
in the long run to communities, is immediately profitable to
individuals. Besides this, it is a source of political influence and
importance. The holders of slaves are an aristocracy supported by
special constitutional privileges. They are united against the spirit of
the age by a common interest and danger, and the instinct of
self-preservation is infallible. No logic is so accurate.
"As a matter of personal feeling, many slave-holders would rejoice in
some of the humane changes which you propose; but they see at once that
any change endangers the perpetuity of the system on which their
political importance depends. Therefore, they'll resist you at the very
outset, not because they would not, many of them, be glad to have
justice done, but because they think they cannot afford it.
"They will have great patience with you--they will even have sympathy
with you--so long as you confine yourself merely to the expression of
feeling; but the moment your efforts produce the slightest movement in
the community, then, my son, you will see human nature in a new aspect,
and know more about mankind than you know now."
"Very well," said Clayton, "the sooner the better."
"Well, Edward," said Mrs. Clayton, "if you are going to begin with the
ministry, why don't you go and talk to your Uncle Cushing? He is one of
the most influential among the Presbyterians in the whole state; and I
have often heard him lament, in the strongest manner, the evils of
slavery. He has told me some facts about its effect on the character of
his church-members, both bond and free, that are terrible!"
"Yes," said Judge Clayton, "your brother will do all that. He will
lament the evils of slavery in private circles, and he will furnish you
any number of facts, if you will not give his authority for them."
"And don't you think that he will be willing to do something?"
"No," said Judge Clayton, "not if the cause is unpopular."
"Why," said Mrs. Clayton, "do you suppose that my brother will be
deterred from doing his duty for fear of personal unpopularity?"
"No," said Judge Clayton; "but your brother has the interest of Zion on
his shoulders,--by which he means the Presbyterian organization,--and he
will say that he can't afford to risk his influence. And the same will
be true of every leading minister of every denomination. The
Episcopalians are keeping watch over Episcopacy, the Methodists over
Methodism, the Baptists over Baptism. None of them dare espouse an
unpopular cause, lest the others, taking advantage of it, should go
beyond them in public favor. None of them will want the odium of such a
reform as this."
"But I don't see any odium in it," said Mrs. Clayton. "It's one of the
noblest and one of the most necessary of all possible changes."
"Nevertheless," said Judge Clayton, "it will be made to appear extremely
odious. The catch-words of abolition, incendiarism, fanaticism, will fly
thick as hail. And the storm will be just in proportion to the real
power of the movement. It will probably end in Edward's expulsion from
the state."
"My father, I should be unwilling to think," said Clayton, "that the
world is quite so bad as you represent it,--particularly the religious
world."
"I was not aware that I was representing it as very bad," said Judge
Clayton. "I only mentioned such facts as everybody can see about them.
There are undoubtedly excellent men in the church."
"But," said Clayton, "did not the church, in the primitive ages, stand
against the whole world in arms? If religion be anything, must it not
take the lead of society, and be its sovereign and teacher, and not its
slave?"
"I don't know as to that," said Judge Clayton. "I think you'll find the
facts much as I have represented them. What the church was in the
primitive ages, or what it ought to be now, is not at all to our
purpose, in making practical calculations. Without any disrespect, I
wish to speak of things just as they are. Nothing is ever gained by
false expectations."
"Oh," said Mrs. Clayton, "you lawyers get so uncharitable! I'm quite
sure that Edward will find brother ready to go heart and hand with him."
"I'm sure I shall be glad of it, if he does," said Judge Clayton.
"I shall write to him about it, immediately," said Mrs. Clayton, "and
Edward shall go and talk with him. Courage, Edward! Our woman's
instincts, after all, have some prophetic power in them. At all events,
we women will stand by you to the last."
Clayton sighed. He remembered the note Nina had written him on the day
of the decision, and thought what a brave-hearted little creature she
was; and, like the faint breath of a withered rose, the shadowy
remembrance of her seemed to say to him, "Go on!"