CHAP. XXII.] ABOLITIONIST &quot; WRECKER.&quot; 39 



education of the blacks, and especially to their conversion to 

 Christianity. I began to shudder at what I was doomed to wit 

 ness in the course of my further journeyings in the south arid 

 west. He was very intelligent, and so well informed on politics 

 and political economy, that at first I thought myself fortunate in 

 meeting with a man so competent to give me an unprejudiced 

 opinion on matters of which he had been an eye-witness. At 

 length, however, suspecting a disposition to exaggerate, and a 

 party-feeling on the subject, I gradually led him to speak of dis 

 tricts with which I was already familiar, especially South Caro 

 lina and Georgia. I immediately discovered that there also he 

 had every where seen the same horrors and misery. He went 

 so far as to declare that the piny woods all around us were full 

 of hundreds of runaways, who subsisted on venison and wild 

 hogs ; assured me that I had been deceived if I imagined that 

 the colored men in the upper country, where they have mingled 

 more with the whites, were more progressive ; nor was it true 

 that the Baptists and Methodists had been successful in making 

 proselytes. Few planters, he affirmed, had any liking for their 

 negroes ; and, lastly, that a war with England about Oregon, un 

 principled as would be the measure on the part of the democratic 

 faction, would have at least its bright side, for it might put an 

 end to slavery. &quot; How in the world,&quot; asked I, &quot; could it effect 

 this object ?&quot; &quot; England,&quot; he replied, &quot; would declare all the 

 slaves in the south free, and thus cripple her enemy by promoting 

 a servile war. The negroes would rise, and although, no doubt, 

 there would be a great loss of life and property, the south would 

 nevertheless be a gainer by ridding herself of this most vicious 

 and impoverishing institution.&quot; This man had talked to me so 

 rationally on a variety of topics so long as he was restrained by 

 the company of southern fellow-passengers from entering on the 

 exciting question of slavery, that I now became extremely curious 

 to know what business had brought him to the south, and made 

 him a traveler there for several years. I w r as told by the con 

 ductor that he was &quot; a wrecker ;&quot; and I learnt, in explanation 

 of the term, that he was a commercial agent, and partner of a 

 northern house which had great connections in the south. To 



