He was a wild-beast, as I began with saying,--an
unsophisticated wild-beast,--while the rest of us are partially tamed,
though still the scent of blood excites some of the savage instincts of
our nature. What this wretch needed, in order to make him capable of the
degree of mercy and benevolence that exists in us, was simply such a
measure of moral and intellectual development as we have received; and,
in my mind, the present war is so well justified by no other
consideration as by the probability that it will free this class of
Southern whites from a thraldom in which they scarcely begin to be
responsible beings. So far as the education of the heart is concerned,
the negroes have apparently the advantage of them; and as to other
schooling, it is practically unattainable by black or white.
Looking round at these poor prisoners, therefore, it struck me as an
immense absurdity that they should fancy us their enemies; since, whether
we intend it so or no, they have a far greater stake on our success than
we can possibly have. For ourselves, the balance of advantages between
defeat and triumph may admit of question. For them, all truly valuable
things are dependent on our complete success; for thence would come the
regeneration of a people,--the removal of a foul scurf that has overgrown
their life, and keeps then in a state of disease and decrepitude, one of
the chief symptoms of which is, that, the more they suffer and are
debased, the more they imagine themselves strong and beautiful.
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