Autographs for Freedom Part 14

_Frank._ Not exactly a theatre-goer, uncle, though I confess I might be, were the performance always as excellent as last evening.

_Mrs. Goodman._ Frank, my son, I hope thee will not attempt to drink from a dirty pool because a pure stream flows into it.

_Frank._ But the rank and file of Democracy drank deep libations to Liberty there, mother.

_Mr. D._ (_Pa.s.sing his cup._) "Drink deep or taste not of the Pierian spring."

_Mr. F._ (_Sarcastically._) Take care, you'll be found using the products of slave labor!

_Frank._ (_Jocosely._)

"Think how many backs have smarted, For the sweets," &c.

Take a bit of toast, Mr. Dryman, our northern products are perfectly innocent, you know?

_Mr. D._ (_Helping himself bountifully._) "Ask no questions for conscience's sake."

_Mr. F._ The practice of you Northerners is consistent with your professions.

_Mr. D._ "Consistency, thou art a jewel!"

_Frank._ It is very hard to be consistent in this world, uncle. My mother once made a resolution to use nothing polluted by Intemperance or Oppression, but finding that it required her to take constant thought "what we should eat and drink, and wherewithal we should be clothed," she was fain to relax her discipline.

_Mrs. G._ Frank, thee must not transcend the truth in thy mirthfulness.

_Frank._ Well, mother, did not some experiment of the kind lead to the conclusion, that I might exercise my freedom in worldly amus.e.m.e.nts?

_Mrs. G._ Yes, my son, but thy enthusiasm about the theatre makes me fear I have gone beyond my light.

_Mr. F._ (_Bitterly._) Never fear, sister, the young man will soon prove that Abolition Societies and Theatres are admirable schools of morals.

_Frank._ Uncle Tom at least has a good moral, and so has William Tell and Pizarro--indeed I do not remember of ever reading a play which had not.

_Mr. F._ (_In a tone of irony._) When I see a young man spending his time at the theatre, in search of good morals, I think he "pays too dear for his whistle."

_Mrs. G._ And yet brother Frank speaks the truth. What success does thee think a play would meet, which should represent such a man as Uncle Tom yielding his principles and faith to the will of a Legree?

_Mr. F._ (_With great asperity._) Do you, too, Rebecca, advocate theatres?

_Mrs. G._ It is not of theatres, but of books, that I am speaking.

Does thee recollect any work, the whole plot and design of which is made to turn upon the triumph of the wicked over the good?

_Mr. F._ (_Musing._) Why--I--don't remember now--

_Frank._ (_In great surprise._) Why, mother, are there no books written in favor of Slavery?

_Mrs. G._ I cannot think of any book which can be said to be written for Slavery, in the sense that Uncle Tom's Cabin is written against it. Such a work is, I think, impossible. No poet would attempt to portray its moral aspects, and delineate its beauties, with the idea of exciting our admiration and approval.

_Mr. F._ Spoken just like a woman! Your s.e.x always seize upon some thought gained through the sensibilities, and then bring in a decision without farther investigation.

_Frank._ And is not the instinct of a woman a more perfect guide in morals, than the reason of man?

_Mr. F._ (_Sarcastically._) Certainly--if it direct her son to the theatre.

_Mr. D._ Or teach him the supremacy of the "Higher Law."

_Frank._ (_With warmth_.) My mother did not direct me to the theatre, sir; she has taught me to love better things;--to her I owe all the lofty sentiments of virtue and truth.

_Mrs. G._ Softly, softly Frank, theatres and Slavery will be quite sufficient for this discussion, without introducing Woman's Rights.

(_To Mr. Freeman_.) Would it not be more consistent, brother, for thee to disprove my argument, than to object to my method of obtaining it?

_Mr. F._ Nothing can be easier--you have a.s.serted in round terms that no work was ever written in favor of Slavery. What an absurdity! If you have any information you must know that the southern press groans with publications upon this topic.

_Mrs. G._ Still if thee examine the matter, thee will find that every one of these books treats Slavery as a curse, and describes it not as a _good_ but an _evil_, of which each man loads the guilt upon his forefathers or his neighbors.

_Mr. F._ Granted they call it a curse, but a.s.suredly they bring forward a defence.

_Mrs. G._ Yes, they defend the Const.i.tution; they defend the rights of the south; they advocate Colonization, or point out the errors of Abolitionists, but what one in word or in effect advocates the principles of human Slavery? The truth is, brother, the system has the literature of the world against it; and the south ought to see in this reading age an infallible sign that the days of its cherished inst.i.tutions are numbered. Does thee not perceive that every novel and every poem carries to the parlor, or, if it please thee, to the theatre, an influence which will eventually re-act on the ballot-box.

_Frank._ Do you mean, mother, to include in your remarks the discourses of Reverend Divines upon the Patriarchal Inst.i.tution?

_Mrs. G._ I cannot except even these; for they acknowledge it an evil, though they contend it exists by divine ordination, just as they a.s.sert Original Sin to be the offspring of Eternal Decrees; but they no more convince the Slaveholder, that he loves his bondman as himself, than they convict him of the guilt of Adam's transgression.

_Mr. F._ What do you say to Webster's great speech on the compromise measure?

_Mrs. G._ (_Pleasantly._) Is not the moral view of a question, about as far as a woman's instinct ought to go?

_Mr. F._ Oh, no; go on, your strictures are quite amusing.

_Mrs. G._ Well, then, since _we_ have taken the position of a reviewer, _we_ must confess that the last effort of the great Daniel appears to us to be _on an Act of Congress_.

_Mr. D._ And _at_ the Presidential chair.

_Mrs. G._ (_Continuing._) It did not touch the merits of slavery at all. Webster knew the feelings of the const.i.tuents too well to attempt such a task. He therefore skilfully diverted their attention from his real issue, to the glorious Union, and its danger from agitators, and he thus carried with him the sympathies of many honest haters of oppression.

_Mr. F._ Well, sister, I do not know but you will prove that there is not an advocate for slavery on the face of the earth.

_Mrs. G._ Only such advocates as there is for robbery and war. Those who find it for their interest to practice these crimes condemn them in the abstract, or at most only apologize for them, as necessary and expedient, under peculiar circ.u.mstances.

_Frank._ (_Laughing._) Why, mother, I shall certainly subscribe for your "North American Review," particularly if you fill the literary department as ably as you have the moral and political, to test which, let me propound a question? If the reward of the good be the charm of fiction, how do you account for the pleasure derived from tragedy, where the good are overwhelmed with the evil?

_Mrs. G._ (_Smiling._) With great diffidence we reply to the query of our learned friend. The force of tragedy consists in its depicting evil so ruinous as to involve even the innocent in the catastrophe; the pleasure is derived, we think, from the _failure_ of the mischievous design, and the merited retribution which falls upon the head of the plotters. In Romeo, "a scourge is laid upon the hate of the Montagues and Capulets, by which all are punished;" Hamlet's wicked uncle is justly served, drinking the poison tempered by himself; and Iago pulls down ruin upon himself no less than upon Ca.s.sio.

_Frank._ (_Bowing playfully_.) Your review meets my entire approbation, inasmuch as it confirms my doctrine, that theatres always give their verdict in favor of virtue.

_Mr. D._ "Casting out devils through Beelzebub."

_Mrs. G._ The artistic effect of every work of the imagination is wrought upon what critics call the "sympathetic emotion of virtue,"

and the decisions of this faculty, so far as we understand them, always correspond with what Christians believe concerning the "final rest.i.tution of all things."