The Loyalty of the Border States [pp. 81-87]

THE LOYALTY OF THE BORDER STATES.
ings to ease the dying hours and do decent respect to the
lifeless remains of a husband, and left her absolutely nothing
with which to satisfy the "dun" of her landlord. Neighbor
Brown knew this as well as you and I, but it was no legal
satisfiction of his demand- no sufficient defence to his warrant;
and if you choose, you mav visit her calamities upon the law
with the harshness and promptitude of its remedy. I will not.
But I am, nevertheless, not obliged to tell you what I think of
a Shylock landlord; nor need I tell you how regardful of the
law I knew this same neighbor of mine to be, when, six months
, ago, fie shaved young Smith at the rate of twenty per cent. to
enable him to pay a gambling debt, without informing his
father of his vices; nor even of the more recent transaction
with myself, in which he abused the confidence I foolishly reposed in his word, by swindling me in a horse trade. I deserved
that, however, for I oug(ht to have known him better. I did
know him better, for his money never blinded me. I only lniscalculated his estimate of the obligations iup)osed by a social
position to which his moral worth is entirely unequal.
Fai be it from me to say that the suppression of truth is
never equivalent to actual falsehood. It is a lie. It is the most
malicious of all lies, when words are carefully and studiously
selected, so as to express nothing that is not true; but, by the
suppression of material facts, and the aid of appropriate gesture and emphasis, to suggest the falsehood. The adroit slanderer always " damns" his victim " with faint praise." Open
censure and avowed hostility may discredit the testimony lhe
bears. But to praise, and yet omit in eulogy the recital of any
thing to justify the applause, is a master stroke of invidious
spleen. The notion of cl transmiigrationr of souls seems to be
predicated upon the theory that the animal creation furnishes
some appropriate receptacle for every human soul. If so, we
imagine the ichneumon would be the only contestant for the
little soul of thie professional slanderer. It is said to be the
business of his life to destroy the eggs of a vastly superior animal-the crocodile-and that not to feast on them, for hie never
eats one. It is the elected employment of the slanderer to
crush every egg laid by industry and integrity, so as effectually
to destroy all the brood which his superiors in merit might
naturally anticipate. He may, he does succeed in " breaking
to the hope" of miany a better man, lhis future. But it requires
no great exercise of faith on the part of the wise, to believe that
the God who gives life in one form may give it inl ainother. It
has been said of our own \Washington, that Providecee left him
childless,- that a nation might call him Fathler; and who, of
earthly parents, from that bourne whither we are all tending,
looks down upon as numerous and extended a family of offspring as the childless apostle of the Gentiles.
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