The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1879-06-29

sensations Of vision and hearing. and that any
theory OF color based on our musical expert
ence must rest on fancy rather than fact"
Three Amerieaa Novels.
book that merits more than ordinary
attention In The Master Of Red Leaf by ELIZA
BETH A. MERIwETHER. vols. U.ondon: Tinsley
Il Col This Is a story OF the civil war. and the
author Ii a lady who has mRnifestly known at
once the harder and least lovely nspects OF New
England life. and. ON the other hand the brill
liant and attractive aspects OF Southern society
as IT existed at the epoch Just preceding the re-
bellion. Her picture is not complete. for We
see nothing in her pages OF the tolerant con-
sentative temper really dominant In the North
up to tho Fremont campaign. nor are we re-
minded OF the crude notions and the vindictive
spirit which formented ip the intermediate
strata Of the Southern community. No reader Of
this narrative would Imagine. for Instance. that
ut Harvard College. in the year before the overt
stop OF secession. the name OF abolitionist was
still term OF reproach. and that the inoffen-
sive kinsmon OF great anti-slavery agitators
were practically sent to coventry. Yet perhaps
the author has done we'll to select for study and
portraiture the truly dynamic elements on each
side--the forces which leavened the whole
mass. overcame inertia. and compelled col
lision. There Is some reason to apprehend
that the future historian may concur
with her In pronounelnR the preserva-
ton OF the Union rather a convenient
Dretext than the generative cause OF the upris-
ing In the North. Certainly the traditional
opponents OF New England feeling and opinion
the accomplished and refined descendants OF
men who had met In the Hartford Convention
could hardly be expected to regard with any
strenuous aversion the rupture Of the fedora
ton. BY the habit OF authority and all those
circumstances OF place and training which sug-
gest a fitness for command these conservative
successors Of Puritan maRnates found them
selves constrained or tempted in the hour OF trial
TO direct the whirlwind but 1t was the abolition
lists who raised and fed the storm.
In the South. however. the affirmation OF
the right OF secession was rooted In the
conviction OF the most sober and thought
ful citizens. II WIS the deliberate judg-
ment the nrm and sincere conclusion
OF the clearest intellects at the South.
Of the men best qualified by requirement and
ability to interpret revolutionary history. and
the purport OF our Constitution. that the light
OF divorce was as self-evident rs the right OF
combination; that the withdrawal OF the South
ern States could not be resisted without i'm
pugning In Its fundamental postulate the Dec
laration OF Independence; that. in a word. the
Union was free contract. terminable at the
will OF either party. II was the vindlcation Of
this principle rather than an interested devo-
ton to an institution whose utility was ques-
toned even at home which gave the
Southern cause its moral strength. and
therefore Its persistent vitality. just as
the tremendous force which swamped 1t was
launched not so much by blind loyalty to a
Union unsanctioned by sympathy and unde-
fined by law as by passionate resolve. perhaps
not untainted with vindictiveness and envy. to
trample out a social iniQuity. We can call TO
mind no history or elaborate disQulsltion on the
causes OF the late war. fin which the lessen
tial antithesis In the attitude OF tho Northern
and the Southern people 10 more distinctly
recognized and projected than in Miss Meri-
wether's novel. We would direct notice. es-
recay to certain passages which demonstrate
the authors comprehension Of the political
problem solved by slaughter and devastation.
and which at the same time indicate the keen
ness OF her observation and the range Of her
experience.
We may premise that the narrative recites the |
fortunes ola New England young woman, bred
In an atmosphere OF extreme priyation. OF the |
most sordid cares. and the narrowest sectarIan |
bigoiry. and who subsequently enters as a gov |
erness the bltho and affluent household of n |
great planter. on one oftnose sugar estates along
me lower Mississippi. where. at that epoch more |
ot luxury cultivation. and refinement were
concentrated than could easily bo paralleled
elsewhere In America. Ostensibly she is a gov
erness. but In reality she is an emssary OF ono
ot those aboltionist societies which made Of
Uncle Toms Cabin" Bible and OF William
Lloyd Garrison an apostle. Hero we may re-
marx. as illustrating the writer's candid and
ilscriminativo treatment OF certain heated
hemes' that sho acknowledges the intutive
correctness with which Mrs. Stowe depicted
some phases OF Southern life. She points ont
nat while the author represents every born
save owner as careless and kind mas
er' she makes the monster Legree, a native
u her own New England. This stroke
u versimiiitude was due. she thinks. 10
nne Instinct OF genius which OWNED
ruth In spite OF pejudce, and which reyolted
rom tho incongruity a making Southern
haster-who. when q babe. had rested on the
bosom OF his black nurse. and. when boy. had
hunted and nshed with his foster brothers-
orture Kill. and roast his own Slaves. She af-
'rms that no truer portraitures OF negro char
lcter have boen drawn than may be found in
Uncle Toms Cabin" and she deems Uncle
rom himself TO be the ideal African Her an
'Ysls OF the African character is incislve and
rlAlng, falth. patience. humility. reverence,
- 'AAN VI WINK tuuuTNueo OF what ia
Without question OF what should be. in n word
VI the passive virtues make up the morale of
Jncle Tom. and these. in our authors iudc.
hent' are the traits ingrained in negro nature.
n the touching central figure OF Mrs. Stowe's
amous narrative you cannot nnd, we are re-.
minded. even the germ OF those Qualities which
n inc Ideal white man would preponderate and
ule his character Honor and dutvn CON
lnues our author. as understood by UncIo
rom meant patient submission to tho stun.
Ion In which he found himself" whereas tho
ame terms In tho conception Of the white race
IMPLY resistance to oppression and challenge
reedom or death. This radical difference WINS
"es'ed' she thinks. by the events Of the war Of
accession. when the slave masters went forth 10
ncounter the invaders. while the black men
emained at home. filling tho fields. and os
lumoly ooedlent to the white women as they
lad been to their husbands and fathers.
me heroine OF this story, In whom. az wa
ave said. the author seems to incarnatea good