The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-06-15


Toms Cabin work in two volumes of more
than three hundred pages each, which appeared
originally in the National Era, in succession
of numbers, and has recently been re-published
in its present form. The papers inform US thai
already, within eleven weeks of its republication
eighty thousand copies of it have been sold al
the rate of dollar to dollar and quarter per
copy.
The authoress of this work is HARRIET
BEEcHER Stowe, wife of Professor STowE, and
daughter of DR.. BEEcHEE. She resided for
many years, before and after marriage, at Gin
cinnati. "Uncle Toms Cabin" is an anti
slavery novel. It is caricature of slavery. II
selects for description the most odious features
of slavery-the escape and pursuit of fugitive
slaves thu sale and separation of domestic slaves,
the separation of husbands and wives, parents
and children, brothers and sisters. 1t portray
the slaves fthe story as more moral, intelligent,
courageous, elegant and beautiful than their
masters and mattresses and where il comedies
any Of these qualities to the whites, it is to SUI
only, as are, even though Shareholders, opposed
to slavery. Those in favor Of slavery are slave
traders, slave catchers, and the most weak, de
PRAYED, cruel and malignant of beings or demons
1t is little curious, that the two works on
slavery which have attained the largest circula-
ton since the Wilmot provso was proposed,
have both emanated from Cincinnati The
first the lecture on G the North and the South"
by the senior editor of this paper; the other,
" Uncle Toms Cabin" OF the lecture, about
three hundred thousand copies were printed in
pamphlets and newspapers. The novel will
probably reach an equal circulation.
1t deserves to be considered that the defence
of the South was documentary argument con-
sisting chiefly of collection of all the evidence
on the subject which existed in an authentic
shape The attack on the South il a novel---a
romance. The system of the South relies on
fact-the sentiment Of the. North,fies TO fiction.
This is significant. For some time before the
North. the practical, calculating and unimagina-
pearance of athe North and the South" that pre-
tension has almost been abandoned We have
been struck with the almost total abstinence OF
the northern press from all aluson to the results
of the last Census, when discussing the slavery
question. That Census has indicated tsium
phantly the positions of the lecture on "the North
and the South" Now, what is the value of
work Of fiction in this controversy? Whar
would be its value even if every incident it con
tains were founded on fact, as the writer init
mates? Why just nothing at all Every man
who is accustomed to reason is familiar with
the artifce of a discounted antagonist When
refuted in argument, when overwhelmed with
evidence, he insists on relating an anecdote, OF
telling story--be retreats into fiction, or cites
particular instance-al although every one capa-
BILE of reasoning knows that any proposition
can be maintained, or any institution be over
thrown, if the citation of particular incidents is
accepted as argument. Government, society,
law, civilization itself would fall in an hour, if
we were to listen to the stories of the wronl
and ruin that incidentally or exceptionally attend
them. Do not murderers escape-are not the
innocent sometimes put to death under the ad-
ministration of criminal law? And yet who
would abolish it, even. if hundreds of novels
were written to illustrate its defects, or under
pretence of exposing its enormity? Do we not
find bad men with wealth and good men in
want-then why not have a novel to prove it,
and to insist on the abolition of property Nay,
there is religion ITSELF whose institutions cannot
be Invested of superstition, hypocrisy and fanati
cism. How many romances could be written
and have been written to illustrate these latter?
yet must We abolish religion?
Mrs. STOWE may have seen during her resi-
dence in Cincinnati, in the arrival and departure
OF emigrants, and in the trade and navigation of
the Ohio and Mississippi, more families separ-
ated forever, she must know that from that
single city more husbands, brothers, sons and
fathers have gone voluntarily, as she calls it,
from wives, mothers and children, and in the
pursuits OF trade met with untimely death by
fevers and cholera on the river, or in the wilder
ness. leaving their families to suffer from want
their children to perish from neglect, than prob
ably all who have been separated by the slave
trade. Why don't she write romance aoans,
emigration. and navigation and commerce The,
are all permitted by our laws.
But Mrs. STOWE complains that slavery give
to one man the power over another to do thes
things. Well, does not freedom, as she call
itr Cannot the landlord of Cincinnati turn OF
family from his dwelling if unable to pay til
rent Cannot those who have food and rainier
refuse them to such as are unable to buy An
does not Mrs. SrowE herself virtually do thes
very things. Suppose poor man were to pre-
sent himself to her and say "Madam, am poo
man with a large family, and We are destitute
And unless you prevent il. shall be compele'
to morrow to hire myself as a hand on fla
bos4 for New Orleans, and besides exposing
myself 70 the cholsr. and yellow fever leav'
my wife IN dslicste health, my Oldest daughte
to the dangers ofa large city without protec