’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.’

’You will have to get the consent of that same West 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 can not be—­and are held in the Union against our will, Government can not, by the Constitution, interfere with slavery in the States.’

’I admit that, but it can confiscate the property of traitors.  Every large slaveholder is to-day, at heart, a traitor.  If this movement goes on, you will commit overt acts against the Government, and in self-defense 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’d 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 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.’