18 LECTURE I. 



quiries is more extensive tlian might be supposed. It will be my 

 object not, indeed, to touch upon all the facts, but merely upon 

 those possessing real importance as regards the inferences to be 

 drawn from them. In fulfilling our task we shall care very little 

 about the dust we may raise, or about religious and political 

 prejudices which we shall, perhaps, be obliged to take by the 

 horns and cast aside. It concerns us very little whether the 

 existence of Adam, Tubal-Cain, and Noah is, or is not, verified 

 by our researches. It is indifferent to us whether the Democrats 

 of the Southern States find in our investigations a confirmation 

 or a refutation of their assertion,* that slavery is approved of 

 and ordained by God ; or whether the Yankee can fairly infer 

 from our inquiries that he is quite justified in his proud refusal 

 to sit in the same room, or to ride in the same railway carriage 

 with the Negro, though he does not refuse to eat what the 

 Negro has cooked. We shall advance straight forward, heed- 

 less of the yelping behind us. 



* There is no doubt that the greater part of the democrats look upon slavery 

 as a divine institution. Many believe that it is supported by the history 

 and teaching of the Bible. Most, however, of the slaveholders of the South, 

 look upon their slaves as a great charge which they have inherited from 

 their forefathers. They believe that the Negro is mentally only a child, and 

 quite incapable of living happily and natm-aUy in juxtaposition with the 

 white European, except in a state of complete subordination and subjection. 

 Many slaveholders assert they would be very glad to part with their slaves, if 

 they could be taken entirely away ; but they refuse to " free" them and 

 allow them to become a nviisance, and an eyesore. — Editoe. 



