"

"Well, it does, that's a fact. If the states should remain together, the
West would in future control the Union. We see that, and are therefore
determined on dissolution. It is our only way to keep our niggers."

"The West will have to consent to that project. My opinion is, your
present policy will, if carried out, free every one of your slaves."

"I don't see how. Even if we are put down--which we cannot be--and are
held in the Union against our will, government cannot, by the
constitution, interfere with slavery in the states."

"I admit that, but it can confiscate the property of traitors. Every
large slave-holder is to-day, at heart, a traitor. If this movement goes
on, you will commit overt acts against the government, and in
self-defence it will punish treason by taking from you the means of
future mischief."

"The Republicans and Abolitionists might do that if they had the power,
but nearly one-half of the North is on our side, and will not fight us."

"Perhaps so; but if _I_ had this thing to manage, I would put you down
without fighting."

"How would you do it--by preaching abolition where even the niggers
would mob you? There's not a slave in all 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 flourish alongside of a
school-house, cannot, 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 a