The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-10-23
WASHINGTON, d. c.
fcopyRlGHr SECURED ACCORDING TO LAW
For the National Era.
UNCLE TOMS CABIN:
or,
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY.
CHAPTER XVIII.-ContinSed.
By MRS. IL b. STOWE.


CHAPTER. XVIII.-ContinSed
4" | used sometimes to hear my mother rea
soning cases with MISUNDERSTANDING to excite
his sympathies He would listen to the mos
pathetic appeals with the most discouragng
poHteness and equanimity 1T all resolves
itself into this he would say must par
with Stubs, or keep him Stubs is the
soul of punctuality, honesty, and efficiency
thorough business hand and as humane as the
general run. We can't have perfection; and
if keep him. | must sustain his administra
ton as a rkole, even if there are now and then
things that are exceptionable. All government
includes some necessary hardness. General
rules will bear hard on particular cases. This
last MAXIM my father seemed to consider a
settler in most alleged cases of cruelty After
he had said that he commonly drew up his
feeU On the sofa, IKE man that has disposed
Is . bpsg.ss aD3:bete5& kialself 20 . nap, on
the newspaper, ~ sie 99css j. Ia - y
THE fact is, my father showed the exact
sort of talent for statesman. He could have
divided Poland as easy as an orange, or trod
on Ireland as quietly and Systematically as any
man living. At last my mother gave up in
despair 1t never will be known, till the last
accounts what noble and sensitive natures like
hers have felt-cast utterly helpless into what
seems to them an abyss of injustice and cruel
ty, and which seems so to nobody about them.
Ii has been an age of long sorrow of such ma
lures, in such hellbegotten sort of world as
ours What remained frr her. but to train
her children in her own views and sentiments
Well. after all you say about training, children
will grow up substantially what they are by
nature and only that From the cradle, Alfred
was an aristocrat and as he grew up, instinc-
lively, all his sympathes and all his reason
ings were in that line. and all mothers exhort-
atoms went to the winds As to me, they sunk
deep into me- She never contradicted, in form,
anything that my father said, or seemed directly
TO differ from him; but she impressed burnt
into my very soul, with all the force of her
deep earnest nature, an idea of the dignity
and worth of the meanest human soul have
looked in her face with solemn awe, when she
would point up to the stars in the evening, and
say to me, See there Auguste the poorest
meanest, soul on our place will be living when
all these stars are gone forever--will live as
long as God lives'
She had some fine old paintings; one in par
tcuar, of Jesus healing blind man. They were
very fine, and used to impress me strongly See
there, Auguste,' she would say. the blind man
was beggar, poor and loathsome; therefore he
would not heal him atdr off, He called him to
HIM, and put has hands on him! Remember
this my boy If had lived to grow up under
her care, she might have stimulated me to |
know not what of enthusiasm might have
been saint, reformer martyr-but alas alas
went from her when was only thirteen, and
! never saw her again /"
st. Clare rested his head on his hands, and
did not speak for some minutes After while
he looked up, and went on.
What poor mean trash this whole business
Of human virtue is A mere matter for the
most part of latitude and longitude, and geo.
graphical position, acting with natural temper
ament The greater part is nothing but an &C.
cdent Your father, for example, settles in
Vermont, in town where all are in fact free
and equal; becomes regular church member
and deacon, and in due time joins IN Abolition
society, and thinks us all little better than hea-
thens. Yet he is, for all the world, in constitu-
ton and habit duplicate of my father can
zee 1t looking out in fifty different ways just that
same strong overbearing, dominant spirit You
know very well how impossible it is to persuade
'ome OF the folks in your village that Squire
Sinclair does not feel above them. The fact is,
though he has fallen on democratic times, and
democratic theory, he is to the heart
an aristocrat as much as my father, who ruled
over five or six hundred slaves"
Miss Ophelia felt rather disposed to cavil at
his picture, and was laying down her knitting
o begin, but st. Clare stopped her.
Now, know every word you are going to
ey. | do not say they acre alike, in fact One
ELL into condition where everything acted
against the natural tendency, and the other
where everything acted for it. and so one
turned out pretty wilful, stout, overbearing
Did democrat, and the other wilful, stout. old
fespot. 1t both had owned plantations in
Louisiana, they would have been as like as two
old bullets cast in the same mouldD
what an undutiful boy you are ~ said
Miss Ophelia
" | don't mean them any disrespect,D said St
Clare. You know reverence is not my forte.
But to go back to my history.
"When father died. he left the whole prop
erty to ms twin boys to be divided as we should
agree There does not breathe on Gods earth
! nobler-souled more generous fellow than AL
Ired, in all that concerns his equals and we
got on admirably with this property question,
without single unbrotherly word or feeling.
We undertook to work the plantation together,
and Alfred, whose outward life and capabilities
bad double the strength of mine became an
enthusiastic planter and wonderfully success
lul one
Z" but two years trial satisfied me that could
not he a partner in that matter To have a
great gang of seven hundred, whom | could
I'm lIx, raoI ind. -.
ferest in, bought and driven, housed, fed, worked
like so many horned cattle strained up to mill
tary precison--the question of how little Of
LIES commonest enjoyments would keep them
in working order being constantly recurring
necessity of drivers and over
seers-the ever necessary whip first, last, and
only argument-the whole thing was insufier-
ably disgusting and loathsOme to me and
when thought of my mothers estimate Of one
poor human soul, it became even frightful!
It's all nonsense to talk to me about slaves
,.ajoyng all this To this day have no pa
'ehce with the unutterable trash that some of
your patronzing Northerners have made up, as
~ their zeal to apologize for our sins We all
Anow better. Tell me that any man living
wants TO work all his days, from day dawn till
uafk, under the constant eye Of q master, with
i Ilt the power of putting forth one irrespons-
",e volit!on, on the same dreary, monotonous,
.nnhichangng toll, and all for two pairs Of pan
, c'"s and pair Of shoes year, with enough
. ana shelter to keep him in working order.
any man who thinks that human beings can,
q, u general thing be made about as comfort
!, ''e ,hat way as any other, wish he might try
~ IA buy the dog, and work him with clear
conscience!p
q 4, always have supposed" said Miss Ophelia.
'a". you all on you, approved OF these things.
anu a"a thought them '1ght-according to Scrip,
Humbog! We are not quite reduced 10
mat yet. Alfred who is as determined despot
AS ever walked, does not pretend TO this kind Of