Epes Sargent

“ They can not bar God's angels from receiving
Thy radiant spirit with divinest welcomes;
They can not cover from celestial eyes
The sacrifice that bears thee close to Christ!
Did I not see thee, on that day in spring,
Leading one sable thousand through our streets;
Braving the scorn and (what was worse) the pity
Of many backward hearts, yet cheered with bravos
From those who scanned the great significance
Of thy devoted daring---saw the crown
Behind the cross, behind the shame the glory;
Behind the imminent death the life immortal?
Weep not, heroic parents! be consoled! ”

“ Julio
Oh! my sister! By the fond recollections of our childhood, of those bright days when we two, hand in hand, roam'd through the fragrant fields in Andalusia--- Izidora
Go on, go on! Oh! those were blessed days! That I might once again before I die welcome the morning with as light a heart! Julio
By all that memory hallows of the past, by all that hope prefigures of the future, forego these nuptials. Izidora
No! It is too late. My word is pledged. Julio
Thy word! 'Tis well for thee to be so scrupulous---thou, who hast kept so faithfully thy word unto the dead! Ah! that strikes home. ”

“ Thus, from his earliest years, lying and fraud become legitimate and praiseworthy in the slave’s eyes; for slavery, except under rare conditions, crushes out the moral life in the victim.
Any conscience he may have, being subordinate to the conscience of his master, is kept stunted or perverted. The slave may wish to be true to his wife; but his master may compel him to repudiate her and take another. He may object to being the agent of an injustice; but the snap of the whip or the revolver may be the reply to any conscientious scruples he may offer against obedience. ”

“ Thy last farewell was utter'd in such tones, as breaking heart-strings might have given forth. 'Twas not the common grief of parting, Julio; for hitherto, when at the trumpet's call, thou hast gone forth to battle, in thine eyes, a sunny hope has danced; but now a tear breaks from its rayless gloom. What means it, brother? Julio
Alas! I never yet have parted from thee with the sad thought, that ere we met again thou wouldst be all another's---never more the gay, free-hearted, fond, and careless girl, whose laugh in bower and hall was sweetest music. Is not the thought well worth a casual tear? ”

“ Regarding poor little Clara Berwick (or Ellen Murray) as a slave, she could never be so far moved by the child’s winning presence and ways as to look on her as entitled to the same atmosphere and sun as herself. No infantile grace, no solicitation of affection, could ever melt the icy barrier with which the pride and self-seeking, fostered by slavery, had encircled the heart, not naturally bad, of the schoolmistress. ”

“ Retribution must come,—come with bloodshed, anguish, and desolation to both North and South,—to Slavery, with spasms of diabolical cruelty, violence, and unholy wrath, and to Freedom with trials long and doubtful, but awaking the persistent energy which a righteous cause will inspire, and leading ultimately to permanent triumph and to the annihilation on this continent of the foul power which has ruled us so long, and which shall dare to close in deadly combat with the young genius of universal Liberty. ”

“ Julio
Carlos! Boy! Page! Izidora
Don Carlos! Carlos (turning abruptly)
That's my name. Lady, I shall be honour'd in your service. Izidora
Is he arrived---the cavalier? Carlos (with dignity)
No, Lady. (Aside) ---They think of nothing but the cavalier, and will not waste a single smile on me. The cavalier! Ha, ha! a man ashamed to show his face---I'm not afraid of him. ”

“ The master has an unlimited, irresponsible power over the slave, from childhood up,—can force him to act as he wills, however conscience may protest! The slave may be compelled to commit crimes or to reconcile himself to wrongs, familiarity with which may render his soul, like his body, the mere unreasoning, impassive tool of his master. And yet a bishop is found to try to cozen Cuffee out of the little common sense slavery may have left him, by telling him he is responsible for that soul, which may be stunted, soiled, perverted in any way avarice or power may choose. ”

“ There is no incompatibility between North and South, except what slavery engenders and strives to intensify. Strike away slavery, and the people gravitate to each other by laws higher than the bad passions of your Rhetts, Yanceys, and Maurys. The small-beer orators and forcible-feeble writers of the South, who are eternally raving about the mean, low-born Yankees, and laboring to excite alienation and prejudice, are merely the tools of a few plotting oligarchs who hope to be the chiefs of a Southern Confederacy. ”

“ Izidora
We are betroth'd; but ere a bridegroom's hand is clasp'd in mine, th' atonement must be made. Were he among the mightiest of the land, who must account for this unholy deed, before thy arm of terror he would quail. Go then! pursue th' assassin to the death. Velasco
Assassin! if the death of him, my love, who slew thy father, would content thy soul;---the boon, it were not difficult to grant. Izidora
Know'st thou the man, Velasco? Velasco
Yes. Izidora
Oh! haste to find him then. Velasco
He is already found. Izidora
Where is the man? Who is he? Velasco
He is here! I am the man! ”

“ Clara looked at the door. The color flew to her cheek,—flamed up to her forehead. Her bosom heaved. Emotions of unutterable detestation and disgust struggled for expression. But had she not learnt the slave’s first lesson, duplicity? Her secret had been confided to one who had forthwith showed herself untrustworthy. Bred in the heartless fanaticism which slavery engenders, Laura might give the alarm and have her stopped, should she rise suddenly to go. Farewell, then, white-robed Candor, and welcome Dissimulation! ”

“ Conscience is not yet torpid! Izidora
Oh! I am tried beyond my human strength. Spare me, my brother. Julio
Wilt arrest these nuptials? Izidora
Never! Julio
I do implore thee. I command thee! Izidora
It is in vain. I tell thee, that the dead himself hath risen to fright me from my purpose! And dost thou hope, by mortal agency to shake my steadfast, unappalléd soul? Julio
Then may the Furies wait upon thy nuptials! Despair and discord be thy marriage lot! ”

“ In the first, he felt the slave’s crowning curse,—the absence of that sense of personal responsibility which freedom alone can give; and he fell into the demoralization which is the inherent consequence of the slave’s condition. In the second era, he encountered his mother, and then the frozen fountain of his affections was unsealed and melted. In the third, he met Corinna, and for the first time looked on life with the eyes of belief.
It will seem idle to many advanced minds in this nineteenth century to use words to show the wrong of slavery. ”

“ Velasco
Ah, lady! poorly can the heart disguise, in flippant Fancy's garniture of words, its true emotion. Love's a sorry masker. Izidora
'Then Love bears no similitude to thee. 'Twas of the wars we spake. Velasco
Enough of them. Oh! ne'er did mariner long toss'd at sea, with no benignant star to point his course, hail with more rapture the first gleam of land, than I from War's seam'd visage and wild glance, turn to the blue eyes of maternal peace! Oh! not the joyous shout of victory was e'er to me so grateful as the sight, which the declining sun this day revealed. Izidora
What sight? ”

“ The right to make the black man a slave implies the right to make you or me a slave. No legislation can make such a claim valid. No vote of a majority can make an act of tyranny right,—can convert an innocent man into a chattel. All the world may cry out it is right, but they cannot make it so. The slaveholder, in emancipating his slave, merely surrenders what is not his own. ”