regard to the
nature and effect of a system."

"Can you not imagine one man owning another," said I, "under
circumstances, and with motives, and in a temper and spirit which will
make the relation most desirable?"

"I go further back," said he, "and I deny that it is right for one human
being to own another."

"Has not God a right," said I, "to place one human being over another as
his owner?"

"Has God a right," said he, "to countenance theft and oppression?"

I said to him: "I might follow your example, and answer you by asking,
Has God a right to countenance war? But I will relieve all your
disagreeable apprehensions as to our conversation at once, by saying
that I am not to argue in favor of oppression. If holding a slave is
oppression, it is a sin. And if it be inconsistent with the golden rule,
it is a sin."

"If that be your doctrine," said he, "we shall soon agree. Now apply the
golden rule to slavery. Are there any circumstances in which you would
yourself be willing to be 'owned'?"

"Certainly," I replied.

He rose, and put some lumps of coal upon the fire with the tongs, and
said, "I presume you mean what you say, and that you do not wish to
trifle with the subject."

"Mr. North," said I, "would you be willing that any one should make you
head-cook in a hotel, engineer in a steamboat, or keeper of a floating
light?"

"No, Sir," said he.

"You would, Mr. North," said I, "under given circumstances. You would
petition for such places, get recommendations for them, and count
yourself perfectly happy, if you succeeded in obtaining them.

"Now look at the slaves. They are a foreign race, we are their civil
superiors, and unless we amalgamate, we intend to remain so. While we
are in this relation, it is a privilege to the blacks to have owners,
but they must use their ownership according to the golden rule. When
this is done, the condition of the blacks, in their present relation to
us, is happy."

"How often," said he, "do you suppose that it is done?"

"That," said I, "is another and a very interesting question, which we
will consider soon. You took the ground, as I understood you, that the
law of love would prevent any one from holding a fellow-creature as a
slave. I reply that it would be in perfect accordance with it, as the
blacks at the South are now situated, for the whites to be their humane
owners. But pray what do you mean by 'owning' a human being?"

"I mean," said he, "having the ri