THE consul's office opened at nine o'clock,--the Captain, with his register-case and shipping papers under his arm, presented himself to Mr. Mathew, handed him his papers, and reported his condition. That gentleman immediately set about rendering every facility to relieve his immediate wants and further his business. The consul was a man of plain, unassuming manners, frank in his expressions, and strongly imbued with a sense of his rights, and the faith of his Government,--willing to take an active part in obtaining justice, and, a deadly opponent to wrong, regardless of the active hostility that surrounded him. After relating the incidents of his voyage, and the circumstances connected with Manuel's being dragged to prison,--"Can it be possible that the law is to be carried to such an extreme?" said he, giving vent to his feelings.
"Your people seem to have a strange manner of exhibiting their hospitality," said the Captain, in reply.
"That is true; but it will not do to appeal to the officials." Thus saying, the consul prepared the certificate, and putting on his hat, repaired to the jail. Here he questioned Manuel upon the circumstances of his arrest, his birthplace, and several other things. "I am not sure that I can get you out, Manuel, but I will do my best; the circumstances of your being driven in here in distress will warrant some consideration in your case; yet the feeling is not favorable, and we cannot expect much."
From thence he proceeded to the office of Mr. Grimshaw, where he met that functionary, seated in all the dignity of his office.
"Good morning, Mr. Consul. Another of your darkies in my place, this morning," said Mr. Grimshaw.
"Yes; it is upon that business I have called to see you. I think you could not have considered the condition of this man, nor his rights, or you would not have imprisoned him. Is there no way by which I can relieve him?" inquired the consul, expecting little at his hands, but venturing the effort.
"Sir! I never do any thing inconsistent with my office. The law gives me power in these cases, and I exercise it according to my judgment. It makes no exceptions for shipwrecks, and I feel that you have no right to question me in the premises. It's contrary to law to bring niggers here; and if you can show that he is a white man, there's the law; but you must await its process."
"But do you not make exceptions?" inquired the consul. "I do not wish to seek his relief by process of law; that would increase expense and delay. I have made the request as a favor; if you cannot consider it in that light, I can only say my expectations are disappointed. But how is it that the man was abused by your officers before he was committed?"
"Those are things I've nothing to do with; they are between the officers and your niggers. If they are stubborn, the officers must use force, and we have a right to iron the whole of them. Your niggers give more trouble than our own, and are a set of unruly fellows. We give 'em advantages which they don't deserve, in allowing them the yard at certain hours of the day. You Englishmen are never satisfied with any thing we do," returned Mr. Grimshaw, with indifference, appearing to satisfy himself that the law gave him the right to do what he pleased in the premises. There seemed but one idea in his head, so far as niggers were concerned, nor could any mode of reasoning arouse him: to a consideration of any extenuating circumstances. A nigger was a nigger with him, whether white or black-a creature for hog, homony, and servitude.
"I expected little and got nothing. I might have anticipated it, knowing the fees you make by imprisonment. I shall seek relief for the man through a higher tribunal, and I shall seek redress for the repeated abuses inflicted upon these men by your officers," said the consul, turning to the door.
"You can do that, sir," said Mr. Grimshaw; "but you must remember that it will require white evidence to substantiate the charge. We don't take the testimony of your niggers."
Just as the consul left the office, he met Colonel S--entering. The colonel always manifested a readiness to relieve the many cases of oppression and persecution arising from bad laws and abused official duty. He had called upon Mr. Grimshaw on the morning of the arrest, and received from him an assurance that the case would be considered, the most favorable construction given to it, and every thing done for the man that was in his power. Notwithstanding this to show how far confidence could be put in such assurances, we have only to inform the reader that he had despatched the officers an hour previously.
The colonel knew his man, and felt no hesitation at speaking his mind. Stepping up to him, "Mr. Grimshaw," said he, "how do you reconcile your statement and assurances to me this morning with your subsequent conduct?"
"That's my business. I act for the State, and not for you. Are you counsel for these niggers, that you are so anxious to set them at liberty among our slaves? You seem to have more interest in it than that interfering consul. Just let these Yankee niggers and British niggers out to-night, and we'd have another insurrection before morning; it's better to prevent than cure," said Grimshaw.
"The only insurrection would have been in your heart, for the loss of fees. If you did not intend what you said, why did you deceive me with such statements? I know the feelings of our people, as well as I do yours for caging people within that jail. Upon that, I intimated to the Captain what I thought would be the probable result, and this morning I proceeded to his vessel to reassure him, upon your statement. Imagine my mortification when he informed me that his steward had been dragged off to jail early in the morning, and that those two ruffians whom you disgrace the community with, behaved in the most outrageous manner. It is in your power to relieve this man, and I ask it as a favor, and on behalf of what I know to be the feelings of the citizens of Charleston."
"Your request, colonel," said Mr. Grimshaw, with a little more complacency, "is too much in the shape of a demand. There's no discretion left me by the State, and if you have a power superior to that, you better pay the expenses of the nigger, and take the management into your own hands. I never allow this trifling philanthropy about niggers to disturb me. I could never follow out the laws of the State and practise it; and you better not burden yourself with it, or your successors may suffer for adequate means to support themselves. Now, sir, take my advice. It's contrary to law for them niggers to come here; you know our laws cannot be violated. South Carolina has a great interest at stake in maintaining the reputation of her laws. Don't excite the nigger's anxiety, and he'll be better off in jail than he would running about among the wenches. He won't have luxuries, but we'll make him comfortable, and he must suit his habits to our way of living. We must not set a bad example before our own niggers; the whiter they are the worse they are. They struggle for their existence now, and think they're above observing our nigger laws. We want to get rid of them, and you know it," returned Grimshaw.
"Yes; I know it too well, for I have had too many cases to protect them from being 'run off' and sold in the New Orleans market. But when you speak of white niggers, I suppose you mean our brightest; I dispute your assertion, and point you to my proof in the many men of wealth among them now pursuing their occupations in our city. Can you set an example more praiseworthy? And notwithstanding they are imposed upon by taxes, and many of our whites take the advantage of law to withhold the payment of debts contracted with them, they make no complaint. They are subject to the same law that restricts the blackest slave. Where is the white man that would not have yielded under such inequality? No! Mr. Grimshaw, I am as true a Southerner-born and bred-as you are; but I have the interests of these men at heart, because I know they are with us, and their interests and feelings are identical with our own. They are Native Americans by birth and blood, and we have no right to dispossess them by law of what we have given them by blood. We destroy their feelings by despoiling them of their rights, and by it we weaken our own cause. Give them the same rights and privileges that we extend to that miserable class of foreigners who are spreading pestilence and death over our social institutions, and we would have nothing to fear from them, but rather find them our strongest protectors. I want to see a law taking from that class of men the power to lord it over and abuse them."
A friend, who has resided several years in Charleston, strong in his feelings of Southern rights, and whose keen observation could not fail to detect the working of different phases of the slave institution, informed us that he had conversed with a great many very intelligent and enterprising men belonging to that large class of "bright" men in Charleston, and that which appeared to pain them most was the manner they were treated by foreigners of the lowest class; that rights which they had inherited by birth and blood were taken away from them; that, being subjected to the same law which governed the most abject slave, every construction of it went to degrade them, while it gave supreme power to the most degraded white to impose upon them, and exercise his vindictive feelin............