The Slave Debate
Will seemed flustered, as if struck in the heart, but he soon composed himself and muttered.
“Are you saying you’ll spare my life... by having me come to Mr. Seth’s plantation?”
“That’s how it would go. It’s the only way you’ll survive.”
“So, in the end, you’re telling me to return to the status of a slave.”
“Regrettably, there is no other choice.”
The only verdicts that could be handed down to Will were death or being returned to me, his original master.
Those were the only two options.
Still, most people would agree that being alive is unconditionally better than being dead.
However, Will, who longed for freedom more than anyone, seemed unable to easily accept that fact; he kept his lips pressed tight and his body trembled.
“I came all the way to Boston in search of freedom. Of course, I have no intention of denying that I ended up in this state after acting like such a fool.”
“Then you must survive first.”
“If I just stay alive... will the day I hope for eventually come?”
“No.”
I’m sorry, but even if slavery were to be abolished, the road is still far too long for the true freedom Will desires to arrive for a Black man.
I may be able to advance that day by a few decades, but it would be impossible while Will is still alive.
I have no intention of giving him a hollow promise that if he just stays alive, the day he wants will unconditionally come.
“It is unfortunate, but even if you are freed from slavery, the white people will not treat you as equals. It might be possible in the distant future, but for the time being, it’s out of the question.”
“Then...”
“Even so. I can guarantee you a life that is certainly better than the one you have now. And I promise you that things will continue to get better, little by little.”
In any case, if I say anything more than this, he’ll just dismiss it as the hypocritical nonsense of a planter and won’t accept it in his heart.
Here, it’s most effective to leave the explanation to people who have been in the same situation.
“I’ll step out for about 15 minutes, so if you have any questions, ask Leo or Ben. Let’s talk again after that.”
I stood up from my seat, opened the door, and walked out.
And when I returned to my seat 15 minutes later, as promised,
Will nodded, saying he would hear about the future plans and then make up his mind.
It was practically an acceptance.
As expected of my personal guard... no, my confidants.
I knew I could trust you!
Around the time Will finished his meeting with James and had just stepped out of the courtroom,
a debate between Lincoln and Douglas was in full swing at Faneuil Hall, known as the Cradle of Liberty.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Mr. Lincoln is a man of two faces. I shall now prove that fact to you all.”
“If I truly had two faces, as the esteemed Senator Douglas says, I would have at least worn a proper one instead of this ugly one for the election. It is truly a pity.”
“Pfft!”
“That’s right! Fight with proper logic, not personal attacks! Is it someone’s fault they were born ugly!”
Bursts of laughter erupted from the audience at Lincoln’s witty self-deprecating humor.
Sensing the atmosphere shifting, Douglas shouted, veins bulging on his forehead, not to obscure the essence with humor.
“Mr. Lincoln is obscuring the essence of this grave situation with jokes! The essence is simple. A man named Will, a fugitive slave, assaulted a good-natured white businessman who had hired him, inflicting serious injury. This is a clear challenge to law and order! Yet, why does the Republican Party defend this violent criminal and attempt to shake the rule of law, which is the foundation of our society?”
Douglas’s strategy was firm.
This incident was ‘Will’s personal crime,’ and discussing anything beyond that was merely a logical fallacy irrelevant to the case.
However, Lincoln, as if he had been waiting, began to break the frame Douglas had set and expand the front.
“I completely agree with Senator Douglas. The law must be upheld. If so, we must ask. What kind of injustice! What kind of system! Drove a human being to such desperate violence? This man named Will did not come to Boston to wield violence.
He came in search of the ‘freedom’ this city symbolizes. But what was the reality he faced? He was exploited for the fruits of his labor simply because he was a fugitive slave, and he was treated with subhuman contempt. All while receiving no protection from the law whatsoever!”
Lincoln’s voice rang out through the hall.
“The Senator is currently berating a patient with a fever to ‘stop coughing.’ But I must speak of the root of the disease that patient is suffering from. Ladies and gentlemen, the name of that plague that is sickening this country is slavery!”
Enthusiastic cheers erupted from one side of the audience, while boos erupted from the other.
Now that the atmosphere had turned this way, there was no helping it.
Douglas realized he had no choice but to step onto the ring Lincoln had created, and he shifted his strategy to attacking him directly.
“Look, everyone! Lincoln’s true colors have been revealed! Using this incident as an excuse, he is insulting the gentlemen of the South, who make up half of our Union, as a ‘plague’! He is nothing more than an agitator trying to split this country into North and South! His methods will only lead to war!”
“I am not the one who wants war, Senator!”
Lincoln stood up and continued, appealing to the audience.
“Here in Boston, laborers working at the docks receive wages of about 1 dollar and 20 cents a day. Black people are a bit cheaper. They live day-to-day on wages of about 90 cents. However! It is said that Will only received 50 cents a day due to his employer’s threats to report him to the authorities if he opened his mouth!
Can you live on 50 cents a day? Honestly, I have no confidence that I could. This is the society that the Democratic Party, the ruling party of this country to which Senator Douglas belongs, is trying to create!”
“That is sophistry! Then is the Republican Party suggesting we abolish slavery right now? Have you thought about how much chaos that would bring? Irresponsible claims without any alternatives only bring greater confusion! Whether slavery continues should be decided entirely by the will of the state in question.”
Both sides had solid logic and were considering realistic aspects, so the atmosphere did not tilt to either side.
In fact, debates usually have no choice but to flow this way.
To break through such a stalemate, one must drive the opponent into a dead end or induce a slip of the tongue.
It was Douglas’s side that threw the first winning move.
“Mr. Lincoln’s sweet talk may sound plausible! But he is ignoring the sacred ruling of the Supreme Court! Have you forgotten the Dred Scott decision? Our sacred Supreme Court has already made its ruling! It states that a slave is property, and a slave owner has the sacred right to take his property to any territory in this country! Mr. Lincoln, are you perhaps a man who stands above the law?”
Lincoln is a dangerous person who challenges the authority of the judiciary.
It was a winning frame for Douglas, but Lincoln, as if he had been waiting for this too, smirked and tilted his head.
And calmly and firmly.
He threw a question to Douglas in a loud voice that everyone could hear.
“Very well, Senator. Then I will ask you one very simple question. According to the principle of ‘popular sovereignty,’ which you emphasize repeatedly, the residents of a territory can decide on slavery for themselves through a vote. However, according to the Dred Scott decision you just mentioned, a slave owner has the right to take his property to any territory.”
Lincoln paused for a moment and stared straight into Douglas’s eyes.
In an instant, Douglas’s face turned pale as he realized he had been caught in a trap.
“Now, I ask you, Senator Douglas. Let’s assume the residents of the Kansas Territory decide to oppose slavery through a vote. But when a slave owner from Missouri brings his slaves to Kansas based on the Dred Scott decision, whose rights should take precedence? The rights of the residents who wish to reject slavery, or the rights of the owner who wishes to bring his slaves?”
A suffocating silence flowed through the hall.
It was a hellish dilemma where Douglas would inevitably take a hit no matter which side he chose.
If Douglas answered that the slave owner’s rights took precedence, he would be denying the very ‘popular sovereignty’ he had been shouting about. Voters in the North, especially in Illinois, his own district, would turn their backs on him.
If he answered that the will of the citizens took precedence, he would be directly defying the Supreme Court’s ruling. In that case, the entire Southern Democratic Party, which supported him as a presidential candidate, would brand him a traitor.
Douglas broke into a cold sweat and racked his brain desperately to escape the trap laid by this cunning country lawyer.
Yet, as if to prove that he hadn’t held a Senate seat for 10 years for nothing, he gave a truly clever answer.
“...Mr. Lincoln’s question can be answered very simply! A slave owner has the right to take his slaves to any territory according to the Supreme Court ruling. But, ladies and gentlemen, a right is fundamentally nothing more than empty words with no meaning if there are no local laws to protect it!”
He began to persuade the crowd by squeezing out logic however he could.
“If the residents of a territory do not want slavery, they can stop it in a very simple way. They can enact laws unfriendly to slave owners, or simply not enact any laws at all! If they do not provide police force to crack down on fugitive slaves and take no measures to protect slave property, what slave owner would drag his property to such a place! Therefore, popular sovereignty is still alive!”
Instantly, cheers erupted among the Democratic supporters.
They thought Douglas had wisely broken through this difficult problem.
However, Lincoln just stood there quietly with a face whose inner thoughts could not be guessed.
Others might not know, but he did.
Douglas had effectively thrown away his qualifications to become the President of the United States for the sake of the Illinois Senate election.
Would the Southern Dixies ever consider a person who defends slavery so passively as their presidential candidate?
I could bet my entire fortune that they absolutely would not.
I had completely ruined one of the Democratic Party’s leading presidential candidates.
I don’t know what the result of the indirect Senate election will be, but Lincoln thought he had perfectly achieved what he had aimed for.
At least, up until this point.
By the time I arrived at Faneuil Hall, Lincoln had already dealt a fatal blow to Douglas by pulling out the famous Freeport Doctrine.
I had been inwardly curious about how this debate would flow, but as expected, Lincoln was Lincoln.
Douglas, no longer able to maintain the composure of the strong, left his seat with a face like he’d eaten dung, and thanks to that, I was able to approach Lincoln with ease.
“I enjoyed the debate. I only heard the end, but I could guess the overall flow just from that.”
“Hahaha, thank you. I thought you were on Mr. Douglas’s side, but have you decided to join the Republican Party?”
“That’s impossible. I’ll consider it when Mr. Lincoln makes a bulletproof vest that absolutely no bullet can pierce.”
“If I wore such a suit, I would wear it myself; why would I waste it on someone else?”
Hmm, it was a joke, but I couldn’t just laugh because Lincoln said something like that.
You really do need to wear a bulletproof vest.
“Anyway, looking at the debate that’s burning hot right now, it seems the Republican Party wants to use this momentum to completely end the Democratic Party’s support in the North. Did I understand that correctly?”
“That is correct. My goal is for everyone to know how absurd the Dred Scott decision is and how it shakes the foundation of this country.”
I thought so.
Certainly, anyone with extremely common-sense reason and morality couldn’t help but know how shitty that ruling is.
“I also think that because of that ruling, the South and the North have no choice but to be split forever. But unfortunately, the Republican Party’s aim will not be achieved.”
“...Why is that?”
“My story might be very painful, unpleasant to hear, and perhaps you might want to ignore it. Shall I tell you anyway?”
“Truth can sometimes be cruel, after all.”
Does that mean you won’t just dismiss my words as a lie?
I don’t care if you think it’s a lie. In that case, I can just go find Douglas and reach an appropriate compromise.
“Will is indeed the culprit in the Cedar Grove incident. The moment I release the evidence I’ve uncovered, his execution will be decided.”
“It’s painfully agonizing from the very beginning.”
“Fortunately, I have a painkiller to ease the suffering. Let’s bury the evidence and make sure a verdict of return, not execution, is handed down to Will.”
“...What on earth are you talking about?”
“What do you mean, what am I talking about? I’m saying that since I’ll help Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln should help me too.”
For the Democratic Party, it doesn’t matter at all whether Will actually killed Duncan Skinner or not.
To be precise, from their perspective, Will must be the culprit who murdered Duncan Skinner.
That way, they can use Will as kindling to burn the Republican Party along with him.
So, even if a conclusion is reached that Will is not the culprit, they could manipulate the evidence or overturn the verdict as much as they want.
At least looking at the current government’s actions so far, this was close to a clear possibility, not a suspicion.
But if that happens, I’ll be in trouble too.
“I must take Will to my plantation. Will you cooperate?”
Because the one who must be the winner in this incident is not the Democratic Party or Douglas, but James Seth.