not a slave in South-Carolina but would shoot
Garrison or Greeley on sight.'

'That may be, but if so, it is because you keep them in ignorance. Build
a free-school at every cross-road, and teach the poor whites, and what
would become of slavery? If these people were on a par with the farmers
of New-England, would it last for an hour? Would they not see that it
stands in the way of their advancement, and vote it out of existence as
a nuisance?'

'Yes, perhaps they would; but the school-houses are not at the
cross-roads, and, thank God, they will not be there in this generation.'

'The greater the pity; but that which will not nourish alongside of a
school-house, can not, in the nature of things, outlast this century.
Its time must soon come.'

'Enough for the day is the evil thereof, I'll risk the future of
slavery, if the South, in a body, goes out of the Union.'

'In other words, you'll shut out schools and knowledge, in order to keep
slavery in existence. The Abolitionists claim it to be a relic of
barbarism, and you admit it could not exist with general education among
the people.'

'Of course it could not. If Sandy, for instance, knew he were as good a
man as I am--and he would be if he were educated--do you suppose he
would vote as I tell him, go and come at my bidding, and live on my
charity? No sir! give a man knowledge, and, however poor he may be,
he'll act for himself.'

'Then free-schools and general education would destroy slavery?'

'Of course they would. The few can not rule when the many know their
rights. But the South, and the world, are a long, way off from general
education. When it conies to that, we shall need no laws, and no
slavery, for the millennium will have arrived.'

'I'm glad you think slavery will not exist during the millennium,' I
replied, laughing; 'but how is it that you insist the negro is naturally
inferior to the white, and still admit that the 'white trash' are far
below the black slaves?'

'Education makes the difference. We educate the negro enough to make him
useful to us, but the poor white man knows nothing. He can neither read
nor write, and not only that, he is not trained to any useful
employment. Sandy, here, who is a fair specimen of the tribe, obtains
his living just like an Indian, by hunting, fishing, and stealing,
interspersed with nigger-catching. His whole wealth consists of two
hounds and their pups; his house--even the wooden trough his miserable
chil