The American Prejudice Against Color | Page 6

a church which should exclude from
membership those who held their fellow-men in bondage, and who

would not admit the doctrines of the human brotherhood. Just the man
to assist us, one would have thought. But it is easy to preach and to talk.
Who cannot do that? It is easier still to feel--this is humanity's
instinct--for the wrongs and outrages inflicted upon our kind. But to
plant one's feet rough-shod upon the neck and heels of a corrupt and
controlling public sentiment, to cherish living faith in God, and, above
all to crush the demon in one's own soul,--ah! this it is which only the
great can do, who, only of men, can help the world onward up to
heaven.
Mr. King had scarcely entered the house, and been told the story of our
engagement, when he manifested the most unworthy and unchristian
opposition. Unworthy and unchristian, since he frankly averred, that
had I the remaining fourth Anglo-Saxon blood, he would be proud of
me as a brother. He was bitter, not as wormwood only, but as
wormwood and gall combined. He would not tolerate me as a visitor at
his house, in company with his sister, unless I came in the capacity of
driver or servant. A precious brother this, and a most glorious Christian
teacher.
I have said that the arrival of this gentleman marked a crisis in the
history of our troubles; and it did so in the fact that by the powerful
influence which he exerted over his father, adverse to our marriage, and
by the aid, strength and comfort which he gave to his step-mother; the
Elder was at last brought to a reconsideration of his views, and to
abandon the ground which he had hitherto maintained with so much
heroism and valour.
I shall say no hard things of Elder King; now that the storm is over, I
prefer to leave him to his own reflections, and especially to this one,
which may be embodied in the following question,--_What is the true
relation which a Christian Reformer sustains to public opinion?_
Had the Elder, supposing it to have been possible, assumed towards us
a position more adverse than the one he did in this singular and
unexpected change, the results could not, for the time being at least,
have been sadder or more disastrous. How it affected the feelings of his
daughter, the reader can well imagine, who will remember, that upon

her father she had hitherto relied as upon a pillar of strength, and
especially as her rock of refuge from the storms which beat upon her
from without. Stricken thus, a weak spirit would have given up in
despair; but not so with this heroic and noble-minded lady, upon whom
misfortune seemed to have no other effect than to increase her faith in
God.
Elder King now, not as hitherto out of his deference to the feelings of
his wife, but of his own accord, averred that I should on no
consideration whatever, be permitted to enter his house, to hold a
conference with his daughter, providing said conference was to be
promotive of our marriage. Miss King was compelled, therefore, to
make an arrangement with Mr. Porter, by which our interviews should
be held in his house when I should arrive, as I was expected to do so in
a few days, from Boston. Strange to say, however, and paradoxical as it
may seem, on the day on which I was expected to arrive in Fulton, the
Elder himself took his daughter from Fulton to Phillipsville to meet me.
I reached Phillipsville, on Saturday afternoon, January 29th, and, of
course, was not advised of this altered state of things, until my arrival
there--the Elder's change having taken place within a very few days
previous.
The method which Elder King took to evince his hostility--his
exclusion of me from his house--was extremely injudicious; and I have
no doubt that he, himself, now sincerely regrets it. It excited to action
the mob spirit which had all along existed in the hearts of the people,
and was only awaiting the pretext which the Elder gave--the placing of
me before the community, as a marauder upon the peace of his family.
The mob, also, gave to the matter what the King family, evidently
afterwards, greatly deplored--extraordinary notoriety. Elder King
would certainly have displayed more worldly sagacity, to say nothing
of Christian propriety, to have admitted me into his house as usual,
where we could, all together, have reasoned the matter; and if
prejudices could not have been conciliated, the Elder, at all events, by
his previous acquaintance with my character, had every reason to
suppose that I should have conducted myself as became a gentleman
and a Christian. But so it is,--prejudice thus bewilders the faculties,