stands at 20 below zero—even lower, if long enough—the
Mississippi may be frozen over clear down to Natchez,
Hellgate be impassable for ice, and the wind of Labrador
blow for months across the continent to the Gulf of Mexico—still he can't believe there is any North! Combativeness is irregularly active; he fights his best friends and clings to his worst enemies. Destructiveness is intense; he would abolish the negroes, enforce the Fugitive Slave Bill, and hang the abolitionists. Benevolence is wholly inert. Casuality has become idiotic; he looks into the clockwork of the State, and everywhere finds "a little nigger has got into the machinery," which he would set right by "crushing out" the intruder. Ideality fills him with the foolishest of dreams. The organ of self-esteem swells to a monstrous size—like a huge wen on the top of the head, "a sight to behold." He talks about himself excessively, ad nauseam; and "makes a noise town-meeting days,"
and is always "up" in the Legislature. Vanity is im-
mense; he would be before the people continually; no
place is too small, if only public;[1] he lives in the eye of the people, greedv of praise. Hope is in a state of delirious excitement; no failure disconcerts him, no fall abates desire to rise. Veracity is in a comatose state; "he will lie like Governor ——." Conscientiousness has "caved in," and in its place there is "a hole in his head." He knows no higher law above his own ambition, for which all means seem just. He often speaks of "the father of his country," but never tells his noblest deeds. His reverence is delirious in its action; he worships every graven or molten image that faces South, and lies prostrate before the great ugly idol of Slavery, rending his garments, and cries, "Bafil help us! Baal help us!" Disease incurable; yields to
no medicine; not hellebore enough in all Anticyra to affect the case.
I need not speak of the old anti-Slavery Society. It is not
- ↑
"Fidenamin Gabionimqne esse potestas,
Et de mensura jus dicere, vasa minora
Frangere, pannosus vacuis Ædilis Ulubris ;
—— qui nimios optabat honores"
The Latin is only for doctors, who know the local applications of the geography.
