The mood, or tone, of the following passage (paragraph 2) is best described as In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted the design on my
part to free slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did
last winter, when I went into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of a gun on
either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to
do the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend
murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion,
or to make insurrection.
A. skeptical
B. defensive
C. greedy
D. celebratory