But, then, that Dodo is a perfect sprite,--no amount of whipping can hurt him."
"And this by way of teaching Henrique the first verse of a republican's catechism, `All men are born free and equal!'"
"Poh!" said Alfred; "one of Tom Jefferson's pieces of French sentiment and humbug. It's perfectly ridiculous to have that going the rounds among us, to this day."
"I think it is," said St. Clare, significantly.
"Because," said Alfred, "we can see plainly enough that all men are _not_ born free, nor born equal; they are born anything else.
For my part, I think half this republican talk sheer humbug.
It is the educated, the intelligent, the wealthy, the refined, who ought to have equal rights and not the canaille."
"If you can keep the canaille of that opinion," said Augustine.
"They took _their_ turn once, in France."
"Of course, they must be _kept down_, consistently, steadily, as I _should_," said Alfred, setting his foot hard down as if he were standing on somebody.
"It makes a terrible slip when they get up," said Augustine,--"in St. Domingo, for instance."
"Poh!" said Alfred, "we'll take care of that, in this country.
We must set our face against all this educating, elevating talk, that is getting about now; the lower class must not be educated."
"That is past praying for," said Augustine; "educated they will be, and we have only to say how. Our system is educating them in barbarism and brutality. We are breaking all humanizing ties, and making them brute beasts; and, if they get the upper hand, such we shall find them."
"They shall never get the upper hand!" said Alfred.
"That's right," said St. Clare; "put on the steam, fasten down the escape-valve, and sit on it, and see where you'll land."
"Well," said Alfred, "we _will_ see. I'm not afraid to sit on the escape-valve, as long as the boilers are strong, and the machinery works well."
"The nobles in Louis XVI.'s time thought just so; and Austria and Pius IX. think so now; and, some pleasant morning, you may all be caught up to meet each other in the air, _when the boilers burst_."
"_Dies declarabit_," said Alfred, laughing.
"I tell you," said Augustine, "if there is anything that is revealed with the strength of a divine law in our times, it is that the masses are to rise, and the under class become the upper one."
"That's one of your red republican humbugs, Augustine! Why didn't you ever take to the stump;--you'd make a famous stump orator!
Well, I hope I shall be dead before this millennium of your greasy masses comes on."
"Greasy or not greasy, they will govern _you_, when their time comes," said Augustine; "and they will be just such rulers as you make them. The French noblesse chose to have the people `_sans culottes_,' and they had `_sans culotte_' governors to their hearts' content. The people of Hayti--"
"O, come, Augustine! as if we hadn't had enough of that abominable, contemptible Hayti![1]([1] In August 1791, as a consequence of the French Revolution, the black slaves and mulattoes on Haiti rose in revolt against the whites, and in the period of turmoil that followed enormous cruelties were practised by both sides. The "Emperor" Dessalines, come to power in 1804, massacred all the whites on the island. Haitian bloodshed became an argument to show the barbarous nature of the Negro, a doctrine Wendell Phillips sought to combat in his celebrated lecture on Toussaint L'Ouverture.) The Haytiens were not Anglo Saxons; if they had been there would have been another story. The Anglo Saxon is the dominant race of the world, and _is to be so_."
"Well, there is a pretty fair infusion of Anglo Saxon blood among our slaves, now," said Augustine. "There are plenty among them who have only enough of the African to give a sort of tropical warmth and fervor to our calculating firmness and foresight.
If ever the San Domingo hour comes, Anglo Saxon blood will lead on the day. Sons of white fathers, with all our haughty feelings burning in their veins, will not always be bought and sold and traded. They will rise, and raise with them their mother's race."
"Stuff!--nonsense!"
"Well," said Augustine, "there goes an old saying to this effect, `As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be;--they ate, they drank, they planted, they builded, and knew not till the flood came and took them.'"
"On the whole, Augustine, I think your talents might do for a circuit rider," said Alfred, laughing. "Never you fear for us; possession is our nine points. We've got the power. This subject race," said he, stamping firmly, "is down and shall _stay_ down! We have energy enough to manage our own powder."
"Sons trained like your Henrique will be grand guardians of your powder-magazines," said Augustine,--"so cool and self-possessed!
The proverb says, "`They that cannot govern themselves cannot govern others.'"
"There is a trouble there" said Alfred, thoughtfully;
"there's no doubt that our system is a difficult one to train children under. It gives too free scope to the passions, altogether, which, in our climate, are hot enough. I find trouble with Henrique.