Feeling quite sure that I should get a positive opinion, without any sort of hesitation I said to him: "And who, sir, do you think was the greatest man of all the Presidents, statesmen, and military and naval heroes whose portraits you have here?" "Andrew Jackson, sir," was the prompt reply. "Ah!" said I, "I see, sir, that you have the portrait of Washington. Was Andrew Jackson a greater man than George Washington, sir?" "I tell you, sir," said he, "Andrew Jackson was the greatest man God ever made. He was a man of firmness--more firmness than Washington." Greatly to my surprise, I had found lying open upon a bed in our sitting-room a copy of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," but recently published, the only copy I ever saw in that region. I made some inquiries in regard to it, and he told me he had bought it of a Jew peddler who had spent a night with him. He was very much absorbed in reading it. "I tell you, sir," said he, "the man that wrote that book was a very smart man. They say 'twas a woman; but I tell you, sir, the man that wrote that book was a very smart man." In all our long conversation he did not give the slightest possible credence to the idea that the book had been written by a woman. His oft-repeated and invariable statement was: "I tell you, sir, the man that wrote that book was a very smart man. They say 'twas a woman; but I tell you, sir, the man that wrote that book was a very smart man." A large number of his slaves were passing in and out of the room, preparing our dinner. At length he said to me: "I tell you, stranger, that is my greatest trouble. What is to become of these people when I am gone?" I knew that the laws of the State forbade his emancipating and leaving them there, and so I said: "I suppose you know that some masters are freeing their slaves and sending them to Liberia." "I know that, sir," said he, "and I have told mine that I would free them all and send them there if they would go. But they have told me they would rather I would chop them into mince-meat than go there." Their ears had been filled with such tales in regard to Liberia that this was their idea of the place. As I never saw the old man but this once, I do not know what became of him or his slaves.