"Father’s Reminiscence
Transcribed July 26, 1911
"Even after all that I have done and risked and supported, I remain suspicious of social movements, despite the good they sometimes accomplish. I doubt the purity of motive of those who embrace and carry out causes. Yes, some are driven by outrage at injustice. Others, equally efficient, are motivated by resentment of privilege. Still others seek to carry out religious imperatives. If their interpretation of the Scriptures condemns slavery, then slavery must end. What the religious feel toward the enslaved seems to matter little. Others love the pain of those with whom they hold stark ideological differences. Some take more pleasure in revenge against perpetrators of injustice than in aiding the oppressed. A good many seem natural Jacobins, born to disaffection. They chafe against any perceived power, any state of affairs."
Transcribed July 26, 1911
"Even after all that I have done and risked and supported, I remain suspicious of social movements, despite the good they sometimes accomplish. I doubt the purity of motive of those who embrace and carry out causes. Yes, some are driven by outrage at injustice. Others, equally efficient, are motivated by resentment of privilege. Still others seek to carry out religious imperatives. If their interpretation of the Scriptures condemns slavery, then slavery must end. What the religious feel toward the enslaved seems to matter little. Others love the pain of those with whom they hold stark ideological differences. Some take more pleasure in revenge against perpetrators of injustice than in aiding the oppressed. A good many seem natural Jacobins, born to disaffection. They chafe against any perceived power, any state of affairs."