Carter Martin.
Carter Martin was a journalist and abolitionist from the Southern Confederation. Although Sobel does not specifically say so, it is likely that Martin was an important member of the Southern Union, a powerful abolitionist organization in the S.C.
Following passage of the Lloyd Bill abolishing Negro slavery in the S.C. in 1841, Martin and several other Southern abolitionists traveled to the United States of Mexico to advocate for abolition there as well. The abolitionists met with former President Andrew Jackson at his plantation in Arnold, Jefferson, presumably hoping to win him to their cause, and thus gain a powerful ally.
Martin spoke with Jackson, pointing out that the U.S.M. was the only western nation that still maintained slavery, and voicing the hope that "this blot on civilization will soon be removed."
Martin states in his memoirs, Visits to Strange Lands: My Struggle for Peace and Justice, that Jackson visibly shook with rage at his words, but quickly composed himself. Jackson responded, "Sir, ours was a nation of diverse peoples at a time when yours was the leading defender of slavery. We have men of color in high government posts at the present time, and we honor them as we do all men of talent and accomplishment.
"But we do not believe the African capable of freedom, and so we keep him in a state of benevolent slavery. And what have you done in the Southern Confederation? You claim to have given the Africans their freedom, but in fact have kept them in slavery. The difference between the Mexicans and the North Americans is that you are a nation of hypocrites, while we have the courage of our convictions and are men enough to say what we believe."
Jackson then concluded by noting, "Not one of you is a man of color. Do not even you gentlemen have the desire to mingle with the Africans whom you profess to love? A similar delegation as yours, composed of Mexicans and visiting the C.N.A., would have included Indians and others of color. It is Mexico, and not North America, where the descendants of Jefferson and Adams reside. And we, not you, maintain the hope of human equality for all those whom God has given a soul."
Sobel's source for Martin's meeting with Jackson is the former's memoirs, published in New York in 1865.