In this, more than in
anything else did the malignant character of this American feeling
evince itself--that to drive me off or kill me, if need be, the
"respectable" and the base were commingled, like--
"Kindred elements into one."
Men who, under other circumstances, would have been regarded as beneath
contempt, the vulgar minded and vulgar hearted--with these, even
Christians (so called) did not hesitate to affiliate themselves in order
to crush a man who was guilty of no crime save that, having a colored
skin, he was supposed to be about to marry a lady a few shades lighter
than himself. O, the length and breadth, the height and depth, the
cruelty and the irony of a prejudice which can so belittle human nature.
But to the Committee again. This Committee declared themselves to us to
be a self-constituted body. But whether self-constituted or otherwise,
it matters not, since they were to all intents and purposes members of
the mob--if not in _deed_, still in spirit and in heart. They meant no
more than to save the honor of their village by preventing, if possible,
bloodshed and death. They were not men of better principles than the
rabble--they were only men of better breeding. I do them no injustice.
The tenor of their discourse to us at the house of Mr. Porter, the
spirit of an article published by one of their number a few days after
in the "_Oswego Daily Times_," and the statements of the mob-leader,
clearly satisfy me that had we been married, they (the Committee)
deeming that our marriage would have been a greater disgrace to their
village than even bloodshed or death, would have left us to our
fate--Miss King to be carried off, or perchance grossly insulted, and
myself left, as the spiked barrel especially evinced, to torture and to
death.
Pages:
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34