NOBILITY AND SERVILITY.
The reader will doubtless and also correctly imagine that situated as
Miss King has now been shown to be, she could not have experienced many
very pleasant hours either of night or day,--pleasant so far as the
sympathy of her numerous relatives and friends could serve to make them
such. Fortunately, however she was not of that class whose happiness
depends upon the smiles or the approbation of others earned at any
cost--but upon a steady obedience to what in her inmost soul, she
regarded as demanded by the laws of rectitude and justice.
That a young lady could break away without a struggle from the
counsellors, friends and companions of her youth, is not to be expected.
Miss King had her struggles; and the letter written to me by her on the
consummation of our engagement evinced their character, and also her
grandeur and nobility of soul:--
"I have endeavoured to solve, honorably, conscientiously and
judiciously, the greatest problem of human life; and God and the holy
angels have assisted me in thus solving. Friends may forsake me, and the
world prove false, but the sweet assurance that I have your most devoted
love, and that that love will strengthen and increase in proportion as
the regard of others may diminish, is the only return I ask."
What vows I uttered in the secret chambers of my heart as I read the
above and similar passages of that letter, let the reader imagine who
may be disposed to credit me with the least aptitude of appreciating
whatsoever in human nature is grand and noble, or in the human spirit,
which is lovely, and true, and beautiful, and of good report.
Throughout the letter there was also a tone of gentle sadness--not that
of regret for the course in contemplation,--but that which holily
lingers around a loving heart, which, while it gives itself away, may
not even lightly inflict the slightest pang upon other hearts to which
it has long been bound by dearly-cherished ties.
But family opposition was not the only opposition which Miss King
expected to, or did indeed encounter. Whoever sought to marry yet, and
did the deed unblessed or uncursed of public praise or wrath? And aside
from extraordinary circumstances, it is so pleasant to dip one's finger
into a pie matrimonial.
The following paragraph of a letter written to me by Miss King a few
days after I left her in December, amused me much,--it may possibly
amuse the reader:--
"Professor,--You would smile if you only knew what an excitement your
visit here caused among the good people of Fulton. Some would have it
that we were married, and others said if we were not already married,
they were sure that we would be; for they knew that you would not have
spent a whole week with us if there had been no love existing between
you and myself. Some of the villagers came to see me the day after you
left, and begged of me, if _I were determined to marry you, to do so at
once, and not to keep the public in so much suspense_."
Friend, have you ever heard or read of anything which came nearer to
clapping the climax of the ridiculous than this most singular appeal
couched in the last clause of this quotation, to the benevolence of Miss
King? Certainly, if anything could have come nearer, it would have been
the act of a certain lady who, having heard during this selfsame visit
that we were to be married on the morrow, actually had her sleigh drawn
up to the door, and would have driven off to the Elder's to "_stop the
wedding_" had not her husband remonstrated. It is true, this lady
opposed the marriage, not on the ground of an immorality, but of its
inexpediency considering the existent state of American sentiment; but
then it is curious to think of what amazing powers she must have
imagined herself possessed.
Public opposition however, soon began to assume a more decided form.
Neighbours far and near, began to visit the house of Elder King, and to
adopt such remonstrance and expostulation as, in their view the state of
the case demanded. Some thought our marriage would be dreadful, a most
inconceivably horrid outrage. Some declared it would be vulgar, and had
rather see every child of theirs dead and buried, than take the course
which, they were shocked to find, Miss King seemed bent to do. Some
sillier than all the rest, avowed that should the marriage be permitted
to take place, it would be a sin against Almighty God; and it may be,
they thought it would call down thunder-bolts from the chamber of
heaven's wrath, to smite us from the earth.
"There is no peace," saith my God, "to the wicked."--And surely, clearer
exemplifications of this saying of Holy Writ were never had, than in the
brain-teasings, mind-torturings and heart-rackings of these precious
people, out of deference to our welfare. May they be mercifully
remembered and gloriously rewarded.
It is proper to introduce to the reader at this point, our cherished
friends,--Mr. and Mrs. Porter,--and to say at once, that words are not
expressive enough to describe the gratitude we owe them, nor in what
remembrance we hold them in the deepest depths of our hearts. They stood
by us throughout that season of intended bloody persecution, turning
neither to the right nor the left, nor counting their own interests or
lives as aught in comparison to the friendship they bore us, or to their
love of the principles of truth, justice and humanity. Amid the raging
billows, they stood as a rock to which to cling.
We had known these friends for months, nay, for years. They had also
been students in Mc. Grawville, but had subsequently married, and at the
time of my December visit to Fulton were teachers of a School in
Phillipsville,--where, it may be proper here to say, was located the
depôt of the Fulton trains of cars.
Not only belonging to that class of persons, (rare in America, even
among those who claim to be Abolitionists and Christians), persons who
do not _profess_ to believe merely, but really _do_ believe in the
doctrine of the "unity, equality, and brotherhood of the human race;"
and who are willing to accord to others the exercise of rights which
they claim for themselves; but, having also great purity of heart and
purpose, Mr. and Mrs. Porter did not, as they could not, sympathise
with those whose ideas of marriage, as evinced in their conversation
respecting Miss King and myself, never ascended beyond the region of the
material into that of the high, the holy and the spiritual. Of all the
families of Fulton and Phillipsville, this was the only one which
_publicly_ spoke approval of our course. So that, therefore it will be
expected, that while those true hearts were friendly to us, they were
equally with ourselves targets at which our enemies might shoot.
I have introduced Mr. and Mrs. Porter at this point, because, at this
point, their services to us commenced. But for these faithful friends,
Miss King would not have known whither to have fled when she found as
she did, her own home becoming any other than a desirable habitation,
owing to the growing opposition and bitter revilings of her step-mother,
and the impertinent intermeddlings of others.
Thus far the opposition which Miss King had experienced, though
disagreeable, had not become too much for the "utmost limit of human
patience." Soon, however, a crisis occurred, in the arrival in Fulton,
of the Rev. John B. King. This gentleman's visit was unexpected, and it
is due to him to say, that he did not come on any errand connected with
this subject; for until he arrived in Fulton, he did not know of the
correspondence which had existed between his sister and myself. Though
unexpected, his visit as already intimated, was fraught with results,
which in their immediate influence, were extremely sad and woeful.
Mr. King was a Reform preacher, and had even come from Washington,
District of Columbia, where he had been residing for the last two years,
to collect money to build a church which should exclude from membership
those who held their fellow-men in bondage, and who would not admit the
doctrines of the human brotherhood. Just the man to assist us, one would
have thought. But it is easy to preach and to talk. Who cannot do that?
It is easier still to _feel_--this is humanity's instinct--for the
wrongs and outrages inflicted upon our kind. But to plant one's feet
rough-shod upon the neck and heels of a corrupt and controlling public
sentiment, to cherish living faith in God, and, above all to crush the
demon in one's own soul,--ah! this it is which only the _great_ can do,
who, only of men, can help the world onward up to heaven.
Mr. King had scarcely entered the house, and been told the story of our
engagement, when he manifested the most unworthy and unchristian
opposition. Unworthy and unchristian, since he frankly averred, that had
I the remaining fourth Anglo-Saxon blood, he would be proud of me as a
brother. He was bitter, not as wormwood only, but as wormwood and gall
combined. He would not tolerate me as a visitor at his house, in company
with his sister, unless I came in the capacity of driver or servant. A
precious brother this, and a most glorious Christian teacher.
I have said that the arrival of this gentleman marked a crisis in the
history of our troubles; and it did so in the fact that by the powerful
influence which he exerted over his father, adverse to our marriage, and
by the aid, strength and comfort which he gave to his step-mother; the
Elder was at last brought to a reconsideration of his views, and to
abandon the ground which he had hitherto maintained with so much heroism
and valour.
I shall say no hard things of Elder King; now that the storm is over, I
prefer to leave him to his own reflections, and especially to this one,
which may be embodied in the following question,--_What is the true
relation which a Christian Reformer sustains to public opinion?_
Had the Elder, supposing it to have been possible, assumed towards us a
position more adverse than the one he did in this singular and
unexpected change, the results could not, for the time being at least,
have been sadder or more disastrous. How it affected the feelings of his
daughter, the reader can well imagine, who will remember, that upon her
father she had hitherto relied as upon a pillar of strength, and
especially as her rock of refuge from the storms which beat upon her
from without. Stricken thus, a weak spirit would have given up in
despair; but not so with this heroic and noble-minded lady, upon whom
misfortune seemed to have no other effect than to increase her faith in
God.
Elder King now, not as hitherto out of his deference to the feelings of
his wife, but of his own accord, averred that I should on no
consideration whatever, be permitted to enter his house, to hold a
conference with his daughter, providing said conference was to be
promotive of our marriage. Miss King was compelled, therefore, to make
an arrangement with Mr. Porter, by which our interviews should be held
in his house when I should arrive, as I was expected to do so in a few
days, from Boston. Strange to say, however, and paradoxical as it may
seem, on the day on which I was expected to arrive in Fulton, the Elder
himself took his daughter from Fulton to Phillipsville to meet me. I
reached Phillipsville, on Saturday afternoon, January 29th, and, of
course, was not advised of this altered state of things, until my
arrival there--the Elder's change having taken place within a very few
days previous.
The method which Elder King took to evince his hostility--his exclusion
of me from his house--was extremely injudicious; and I have no doubt
that he, himself, now sincerely regrets it. It excited to action the mob
spirit which had all along existed in the hearts of the people, and was
only awaiting the pretext which the Elder gave--the placing of me before
the community, as a marauder upon the peace of his family. The mob,
also, gave to the matter what the King family, evidently afterwards,
greatly deplored--extraordinary notoriety. Elder King would certainly
have displayed more worldly sagacity, to say nothing of Christian
propriety, to have admitted me into his house as usual, where we could,
all together, have reasoned the matter; and if prejudices could not have
been conciliated, the Elder, at all events, by his previous acquaintance
with my character, had every reason to suppose that I should have
conducted myself as became a gentleman and a Christian. But so it
is,--prejudice thus bewilders the faculties, and defeats the objects
which it aims most to accomplish.