The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-06-03

| yer they come across them. II is supposed
that the leader has been imbued with the spirit
| ofwestern INSTRUMENTATION or Mahomctan.
SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER
-"kEY TO UNCLE TOMS CABIN"
We have received the Messenger for June.
We find another of those spirited sketches
which have given so much zest TO the few pre-
cedirg numbers, and which are published un'
der the head of "FIush Times in Alabama
Much good reading there is besides but what
has chiefly attracted our attention is the lead
ing article, being review Of the Key TO Un-
Gle Toms Cabin" As was to have been ex-
pscted, in that Key" Mrs. Stowe collected
all the horrible tales Of oppression and cruelty
which she had ever read or heard of in connec.
ton with the institution of slavery, and from
them endeavored to sustain the idea SO indus.
triously propagated in Uncle Tom," that the
slave States were little less than pandemo.
mum. and tine SHAREHOLDERS rather worse than
devils in human shape. The writer, whose
essay we are noticing, takes the true ground in
respect TO this matter. 1t were vain to deny
that there are cruel masters among the slave
holders of the South and West-equalIy'yain
is il TO maintain that the power of the master
over the slave is not sometimes abused. So far
are we from wishingito deny either of these pro
positions, that had Mrs. Stowe written to us
for information, we should cheerfully have fur.
nlshed it, believing, as we do, that the best wav
to support any cause is to tell the whole truth
with regard TO it.
This, however, we do undertake to assert,
and we do it without the fear of contradiction
from any intelligent person, who may have TAX
en- the proper pains to make himself acquainted
with the subject. There never existed, in any
country, or in any age. relation placing one
class of persons under the charge of another,
which has been so little abused as this relation
of master and slave. There never was one which
was better guarded by law, or what is superior
TO law, public opinion. A man who is cruel
to his slaves is regarded as a monster-he is
tab0oed by public sentiment-his society .is
avoided, as though he bore with him the seeds
of some deadly pestilence. There is no repu-
tatlon on earth which a Virginian-whch
Southern men in every part of the South
would so earnestly deprecate as that of hard
master. For the truth of this assertion, we
fearlessly appeal to every man who knows any
thing of the South, whether he be Southern
man himself, or mere sojourner in the land
Of these facts, the "Key" to Uncle Toms
Cabin, itself furnishes the strongest and most
indubitable evidence. Slavery has existed in
Virginia fer more than two hundred years. In
every other Southern State its existence is
coeval with the first colonial settlement. The
aggregate slave population is at between three
and four million strong. Yet with all her
anxiety to support foregone conclusion-with
the assistance of agents scattered through the
entire South-wth a whole year wherein TO
collect her materials-Mrs. Stowe has only
been able 10 produce a dozen or so instances
of misused authority. What other relation of
private life could have sustained such a scru-
tiny, and come out SO clear in the end
From the abuses of system, Mrs. Stowe,
with truly feminine logic, has undertaken to
prove the odious character of the system itself.
That this is hardly fair, we think it would not
be difficult to prove. Did that very humane
lady never hear OF husband beating his wife,
or of 'strong minded woman bullying
poor "Jerry Sneak" of a husband If she
never did, she must have been, hitherto, as
SOLITARY and alone" as Col. Benton was when
he "set that ball in notion" For our own
part, we seldom open a paper, especially
Northern paper, in which we do not find at
least one paragraph with some such heading as
this : "woman murdered by her husband"
"strong minded woman" abolish the institution
Of marriage, gether-would she argue that
it is damnable and damning i1stitution-be
cause of these occurrences thus heralded to
the world? To be consistent she must 60 at
least thus far. We undertake TO say, that for
one slave murdered by his master, one hundred
women murdered by their husbands, or hus
bands murdered by their wives, may be named,
and that without going beyond the limits OF
the non-saye holding States of this Union.
But it is supererog atory to point out the un'
fairness of such method of reasoning. Every
thing human, in the hands of man, is liable to
abuse, and must be as long as man continues
to be frail and imperfect creature. Extended
as far as it might be extended, and this is the
true logical way to try the strength of an ar
gument, the reasoning Of Mrs. Stowe would be
as good against any form Of government that
ever existed, for they are all liable to abuse
Nay it would upset christianity, for the re.
cords Of the world show that there is no sys-
tenn of any description, which has been pro
duc,ive of SO many errors.
Slavery is like every other system that has
ever existed. A perfect system, in the hands
of an imperfect being, would be just as apt tc
produce mischief, as an imperfect system
| otherwise we should not have heard of so many
religious abuses. Well, slavery is not per
feet sy I'm, since it was devised by man, ant
like all other systems, it has been occasionally
perverted. Ifit is to be set aside for that rea
son, and such is the amount of the Key'
teaching, then neither our republican form o
government nor our holy religion is safe.
The writer under consideration sustains his