The madness of city life was strewn all about the friends with people rushing this way and that; here, there and everywhere without a care in the world but for their own affairs. But Jacob, Peter, and Ruth had no care for the world, as they saved their attention for one another. They talked and they laughed and they filled the empty hours with smiles as they sat by the street and sipped their tea, for their love for one another was a love that endured the cruelty of the world. But eventually their talk turned to the business of the world. Ruth, being moved the most, was the first to speak.
“I simply cannot believe it! How can people treat one another with such cruelty? To whip their fellows like laboring animals? To keep them in chains while they sell off their fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and children like so many head of cattle? And the government does nothing about it! They are monsters, all of them. They must be.”
Peter shook his head before giving voice to his disagreement. “They are not monsters, just men. Always and in every age the greed of man has shown itself in cruelty to his fellow. This is but the latest in a long such line of such sin and shame. I fear it is inevitable.”
Jacob could not accept his friends cynical outlook. “I refuse to believe that this demonic behavior is unavoidable. In every age there has been cruelty, yes, but there has also been resistance to said cruelty. Moses, King Arthur, Robin Hood, there have always been men who were not afraid to take a stand for what is good and what is right. If we give in to our fear then we have already lost my
11 friend. There simply must be something that we can do.”Peter would not accept his friend’s idealistic outlook. “But what can we do, just the three of us? Who would listen? The government most certainly never would, making one compromise after another. It has not the backbone the Good Lord gave to the common chicken! With these Southern fire-breathers threatening to go their own way and form their own nation, I fear that any push would only lead to even more intolerable cruelties.”
Jacob shook his head and refused to give ground. “Sitting around here and fretting certainly will not improve matters one whit. Silence makes a statement louder than words. At the very least we must speak out. For if we do not then by our inaction we condone what these slave drivers are doing. There must be someone who will listen. Surely we are not the only ones who feel in our hearts the stirrings of compassion.”
But Peter was not that easy to convince. “You think that men listen to their hearts, do you? If that were the case then our nation would not be having this problem in the first place. No my friend, men do not listen to their hearts and they have little if any concern for almighty God. Men listen to their wallets, and they have concern only for the almighty dollar. If the enlightened men of New England push, then these Southern barbarians will only band together and push back.
“Think about it. From where is Old England making their money these days? From textile manufacturing, that is where. And where do these factories obtain their raw materials from? They receive the necessary fibers from these very slave drivers that you are denouncing. My friend, this problem is bigger than you and me. If there is to be a fight, then England will not be on the side of civilization. And you and I both know that her navy has the power to reduce our little flotilla into so much driftwood. And with her redcoats fighting side by side with these harsh men of cruelty we could never hope to prevail.”
Jacob did think about it, but he was not that easy to convince either. “I hear what you are saying friend, and certainly we have a hard struggle on our hands. But if we sit on our hands and do nothing then we are no better than these spineless men of government you speak of. The very intolerability of this cruelty demands our action. The time for words may very well have passed, but if we believe in democracy then we must try again. And if the time for deeds should again come as it did for our forefathers, well, the forces of democracy have outlasted the forces of tyranny before. I believe they can do so again. But by words or by deeds, by God I will do something. And if I must go alone, then go alone I shall.”
Ruth took his hand under the table and let him know with the gentle pressure of her fingers that he would never be alone, but Peter could not help but laugh. “So you shall battle all the world’s dragons single-handedly, shall you? Forgive me, I had no idea that I sat in the presence of Saint George himself. You are only one man, my poor deluded friend. What difference can you possibly make in a world that does not care?”
Jacob’s resolve cooled and hardened. “I know not, but at least I have the courage to go out there and find out.”In the heat of the debate, the two men had not noticed Ruth digging through her handbag and producing a newspaper. She dropped a recent issue of The Liberator on the table between them. The headline read “The Battle for Kansas.” “Here is something that we can do. Kansas is where it is all boiling down. Whichever side, slave or free, takes Kansas will have a majority in the Senate once it achieves statehood. If the free states had a majority in Congress then they could outlaw slavery once and for all. The conflict there has been awful, bloody even. Certainly every pair of hands would help. We should go there.”
Peter glanced at the article and scoffed. “Three people would hardly swing the vote. The Kansas Territory borders on Missouri, a slave state. We would be outnumbered there. And I doubt that men who whip their fellows on a whim would think twice about slitting out throats. Besides, you put far too much stock in government. As I have stated previously, the government has accomplished nothing but delay on this question.”
Their debate dissipated, its energy scattered into the four winds. Their conversation turned to happier topics, though the somberness remained. With time evening passed into night, and the three bid one another a bittersweet goodbye and each went their own way back to the places they called home. But Jacob walked with just a little more purpose and stood just a little bit more upright. He had not said anything, so eager he was for the quarrel to be finished, but Ruth’s idea had indeed planted a seed in his mind. He would walk alone for the present, but his conviction was such that he would do something, or else he would die trying.
