The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-11-18
UNCLE TOMS CABIN"

UNCLE TOMS CABIN"
The sales of this work in Great Britain are
incredible, and it seems to have given new
impulse there to the discussion of the question
of Slavery. Our pro-slavery patriots complain
of this: "What right have the English to dis
cuss or even consider the subject of Slavery .
The answer is easy 1t is question OF HUI
manity it concerns, not one country, but all
countries; not one race, but mankind not a
single right, or one class Of rights, but all
rights. If Slavery be legitimate institution
here, il is legitimate in Cuba in Brazil in India
in Africa If it be honest and decent in the
South for one man to use for his own profit
work for his own benefit and without wages,
another man, it is honest and decent to do the
same thing at the North, in England, in France,
in Austria, in Russia If the principle Of Des-
potism is right in America, it is right in Eu-
rope, right wherever the heel of Tyranny grinds
Humanity in the dust. If the argument for
maintaining Slavery in the United States be
good, so is the argument for maintaining arts.
tocracy, feudal privileges, unequal laws, gov
erning and subject classes, everywhere. Amer
lean Slavery is linked with all Oppression,
American Liberty with all Freedom And shall
we ask what right have the People of other
countries TO be concerned about our Slavery
The Democratic masses of Europe must be con-
cerned because it is upheld by the same instru-
mentalites and arguments which are used to
enforce their degradation and the Despots are
concerned Because every protest against Plant
alton Slayeryis a protest against their prerog-
alive
But this volume is doing its most potent
work in this country. The coarse personal
assaults of reckless Pro-Slavery partisqns,
their vile misrepresentation, their splteful crit
icsms. their audacous denials cannot stop the
circulation or weaken the effects Of this work
By falsely charging that it depreciates the
whites and exalts the blacks that it exagger-
ates the evils and conceals the good of the
social institutions of the South and that it is
! imbued with an enyenOmed hate against the
Southern people they hope to induce them to
reject without reading it, so rs to make them
inaccessible to its gentle, all-powerful teach
ings The effort is vain Hundreds of copies
have been eagerly bought by the citizens of this
District and they will testify to its truthlulness.
Thousands of copies have been called for in the
South, and it is in vain for the Press there
10 tD 70 .irnulntinp Those ,xb O
have read it, know that its characteristic spirit
is genial and Christian that its manifest aim
is to be candid and truthful that towards the
Southern people it breathes nought but good
will that it's representations, while they must
awaken sympathy for the Slaves, and hostility
to the system Of Slavery, are not calculated to
disparagc the white people of the South, TO
foster hostility against Them to ALLEVIATE from
them the sympathies of the North. The i'm
preston made by the work upon the liberal
mind is, that Slavery is an ncalculabe evil, in
which the Southern people are SO involved by
law, education, habit, intellect, prejudice, pride
that while every legitimate means should be
put in rcquisition for its removal they are en-
tItlcd 10 GOrbearancc brotherly kindness, char
ity, though not exempt from fearful response
bility.
We are glad that while the pro slavery press
is busy in its work of defamation, there are
presses in the South fair-minded and fearless
enough to commend the book to the attention
of their feow-citzens. Read the following,
from the Georgetown (Kyl Herald. one of the
long-establishcd papers Of that State
Uncle Toms Cabin by H. B. Store - Good
books, like good actions, best explain them
selves and in the work before us the good il
quite comprehensive enough to insure its APP
probation; but we are accustomed to ne
counts of the horrors of slavery we repeated
ly have before us such decorating descriptions
of hoggings and burnings to death, done under
its black shadow that it is necessary to explain
that Uncle Toms Cabin consists of no such
dreadful details 1t is at once an impartial
statement of the case rs regards Slavery, and a
gracefully-tOd tale of human life and human
hearts glowing with heavenly colors, and full
of the force and power which nature and truth
impart The deneation of character is as
simple rs it is exquisite in its touches In the
naughty Southron of New Orleans, of French
and aristocratc English descent with his gen
erous sympathies and lavish hberalty, as well
a. in the soul. grinding planter whose heart has
reached the aWstage of callosity in the exer-
else Of irresponsible power, and no less in the
serene but active and practical Quaker matron
of the North than in the langud lady of the
Italian ATTITUDES, weared to apathy by the safety
of wealth. we can trace the varied and COM
bined influences of nature and circumstance
Character, whether in black delicately dscrim-
mated by his gifted pen, the stern integrity and
touching piety of the hero, Uncle Tom claim
our sincere respect the graceful and ingenious
quadroons interest Immediately the New
England lady is Il very ideal of respectable old
maidenhood; and the natural drolcry of the
negro character admits clown into the CORPS
dramatique while our tendercst sympathies
are awakened by the trembling sensblitv and
angelic nature of the beautiful little Eyangel
inc and in each and all we recognise real por-
traits from the great gallery of Nature There
are some most liie.like home scenes and con-
versations, and the changes and turn of the
letters are managed with an ease and grace
which, with the elegance Of the style give the
book charm as merely literary and artistic
performance. We shall merely premise that
the tale runs in SO fluent stream that detach-
ed extracts must needs lose much of their force
and beauty when read apart from the before
and after'n
Here is another witness from Missouri-thc
Jefferson Inquirer published at Jefferson City,
IN that State, and a warm supporter of Pierce
and King:
Uncle Toms CGbin-Well, like good
portion of the world and the rest of mankind
we have read the book of Mrs Stowe, bearing
the above title
From numerous statements newspaper
paragraphs, and rumors We supposed the book
was all that ianaticism and heresy could invent,
and were therefore greatly prejudiced against
1t. But, on reading it, we cannot refrain from