would become of them?” said I.—­“Hire them,” said he; “pay them wages; let husbands and wives live together; abolish auction-blocks, and”—­“But,” said I, “some of the very best of men in the world, at the South, are decidedly of the opinion that such emancipation would be the most barbarous thing that could be devised for the slaves.”—­“Are you a slave-holder?” said he.—­“I was,” said I; “but I have liberated my slaves, and I am in your city to see the last two of my servants sail with your fellow-citizens ——­ and ——­” (naming them).—­“You don’t say so!” said he.  “What did you liberate them for?”—­“I could not take proper care of them,” said I, “situated as I am.”—­“But,” said he, “did you do right in letting them go to sea as you did?  One of them will get no good with that man for a master.  I would rather be your dog than his child.”—­“Then,” said I, “you have ‘oppressors’ at the North, it seems.”—­“Well,” said he, “some of our people are not as good as they ought to be.”—­“It is so with us at the South,” said I.—­“Preach for me next Sabbath, Sir,” said he.—­“Are you going to stay over?”—­“Why,” said I, “my dear Sir, would you and your people like to hear a man preach for you whom you, if you made the prayer, would first pray for as an ‘oppressor?’”—­“But you are not an oppressor,” said he.—­“But I am in favor of what you call ‘oppression,’” said I.—­“One thing I could pray for with you,” said I.—­“What is that?” said he.—­“Break every yoke,” said I.  “This I pray for always.  But how many ‘yokes,’” said I, “do you suppose there are at the South?”—­“I forget the exact number of the slaves,” said he, in the most artless manner.’

“Hereupon the company broke out into great merriment.  After they had enjoyed their laughter awhile, my Northern lady-friend said, ’Did you preach for him?’

“‘Yes,’ said the pastor; ’and prayed for him too.

“’Walking through the streets of that place in the evening, I saw evidence that no minister nor citizen there was justified in casting the first stone at the South for immorality.  I lifted up my heart in thanks to God that my sons were not exposed to the temptations of a Northern city.  Being in the United States District Court there, several times, I had some revelations also with regard to the treatment and the condition of seamen in some Northern ships, which led me to the conclusion which I have often drawn,—­that poor human nature is about the same, North and South.

“’So, when I conducted the services of public worship, I prayed for that city and for the young people, and alluded to the temptations which I had witnessed; and I referred also to mariners, and prayed for masters and officers of vessels who had such authority over the welfare and the lives of seamen; and I prayed that Christians in both sections of our land might pray for each other, considering each themselves, lest they also be tempted, and that they might not be self-righteous and accusatory; and that our eye might not be so filled with the evils of other sections of the land as not to see those which were at home.