A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, An Essay on Slavery

on the side of truth, or at least, that I wished to be found on that side. Calling at a book-store, I purchased a work on slavery, returned immediately to my room, and was anxiously looking

e writers on slavery; and it appeared, that recent writers, preferred that their views upon it, should appear before the public in a fictitious garb. I have no doubt, that the first inquiry of most of those into whose hands this volume may chance to fall, will be, "Which side of the question is it on?" Thus, it appears that the question of African slavery has two sides; and that either interest, ignorance, or prejudice; or what is worse, a vain glorious desire on the part of some to be considered the champions of liberty, the guardians of the rights of

difference in the features of our faces, and the expression of our countenances. The Author of our existence, for wise purposes, made us to differ mentally, as well as physically. The structures of our minds are different. The great Architect willed that it should be thus; why, we presume not to know, but so it is. And then moreover, our physical training, mental, moral and religious culture; together with climate and a variety of other external and internal causes, have all contributed more or less in shaping our opinions, and giving a peculiar cast to our minds. Thus it is, that we are all looking through different glasses, and it is no wonder that we do not all see objects just alike. Objects must necessarily present themselves to us, in different hues and colors. Some are so accustomed to view all objects through a microscope, that they have no just conception of the real magnitude of any body. Exaggeration is their forte-in this they excel. Their towering minds soar above common comprehension and common sense, and their fertile imaginations are ever ready to conjure up spectres, ghosts and hobgoblins; or otherwise, where others see a mouse, they behold an elephant; and to their distorted visions, a mole-hill is magnified into a mountain. We look in vain to such writers for a plain, unvarnished, common sense statement of facts, for sound arguments, or logical deductions. Such authors have nothing to do with facts, or things as they exist among us. Their imaginations are ever ready to furnish facts, on which to base their preconceived inferences and conclusions.

ll we do with it? The plague is on us-about us-in our midst. Where? Oh! where, shall we find a remedy? The great work is before us; who is competent to the task? Statesmen as wise and patriotic as any the world ever produced, have shrunk from the task, confounded and abashed. Where is Clay! Where is Webster? All that was earthly of them, is no more. Long did they grapple with the monster slavery, and by their wise councils, through many a dark and stormy

dence and discretion, frequently result in no good to the possessor, and too often in positive injury to the object of his solicitude. An excess of sympathy some times dethrones the judgment. Sympathy for the slave may prompt us to act in the right direction; but unless judgment and justice illumine our paths, and direct our steps, all our efforts to ameliorate his condition, will prove worse than useless. The slaves of the South are proper objects of our sympathy, and so

s brother holding familiar converse with brother. Mrs. Stowe's book is not likely to be generally read in the South; and provided it should be, it can excite no other than fe

ity of uninformed readers, that they are every day occurrences; that a large portion, if not a majority of the slaveholders are involved in the charges specified. How does such a procedure, on the part of Mrs. Stowe, comport with the great principles of truth and justice; which should have been her guide while writing on so grave a subject! Wherever man possesses power over his fellow man, throughout the length and breadth of the habitable globe, there are occasional instances of brutality and barbarism, too shocking for recital; and that deeds dark, dolorous and infamous, should sometimes be perpetrated by American slaveholders, is nothing strange. But is it just, is it right, for her to present slaveholders in the United States, en masse, to the whole civilized world, as a s

scruple to bring about the emancipation of the slaves by any means, regardless of consequences. She would not, I suppose, hesitate to force emancipation on the South, at the point of the bayonet, regardless of the murders, rapines, rapes-the indiscriminate butchery of unoffending women and children-the overthrow of the Union, and the introduction of lasting hates and civil wars, and the ultimate massacre and extinction of the entire African race!! Great God, what atrocious crimes have been perpetrated in the name of liberty!!! She does not, however, openly advocate these extreme measures in her book, but there is, nevertheless, a squinting in that direction in several places. In inculcating resistance to the laws of her country, she is virtually advocating a dissolution of the Union, with all its attendant consequences, results and horrors. For whenever we

rous abuse and destruction of horses, and other species of property. She may tell us that the penal statutes, so far as slaves are concerned, are a dead letter; that they are inoperative; that they have no force or effect whatever. This also, I know to be untrue, from personal observation. I admit that slaveholders often evade the punishment due their crimes, and so do men everywhere. The crimes of men of wealth and influence too often go unpunished, not only in the slave States, but wherever the foot of man has trodden the soil.

extent, at his own discretion. The master is judge, juror, and executioner. Whipping is the ordinary punishment inflicted on slaves for crime. Whether it is the punishment most likely to deter them from the commission of it, I know not; but I think it is probable, that under the circumstances, they can find no punishment better adapted to the proposed object. Be it as it may; custom has decided that it shall be the punishment of the slave. Theft is the most common crime among slaves, and for this they are whipped by their masters, and no further notice is taken of the crime. A slave is simply whipped for an offense, which would imprison a white man for several months, and then confine him in the State penitentiary for several years. The master may, if he chooses, surrender the offending slave to the legal authorities; but supposing that he does, the punishment is the same; he is simply whipped and sent back to his master. The crime may be theft, destruction of property, assault and battery;

h would hang a white man; or otherwise confine him in the penitentiary for a series of years, or for life time. Negroes are frequently whipped and then transported to the extreme Southern States for murder; and that too, under circumstances, where the crime is one of a very aggravated character; for premeditated murder-murder committed with malice prepense. But in the eyes of abolitionists, it is dreadful to whip a slave for so small an offense; and yet they would stand by, and with exquisite pleasure see a white man hanged for the same crime. Kin

le are free. Nobody forces them to work beyond their capabilities of endurance. The objection is without foundation, for indigence and liberty, never resided together in the same hovel or hut. Hunger and cold are hard masters, far worse than Southern slaveholders; and the penurious Yankee who inadequately pays the laborer, and thus suffers him to starve or freeze to death, is morally as bad as the man who whips his slave to death. If the latter is a murderer, so is the former. The generality of slaves are better paid for their labor, than the poorer classes of people North or South. They at least receive more

veholders. Suppose the South should manumit their slaves, will the North receive and educate them? No, by no means; and however ignorant Mrs. Stowe may be in relation to Southern slavery, she must be well aware of the universal prejudice in the North against free negr

l soon have no foot hold in the North; for Irish and German laborers will supersede them; or otherwise Northern men will legislate them out of the free states. Pennsylvania has already taken from them the privilege of voting, and Indiana and Illinois will not suffer them to enter their borders; and I judge from present indications, that Ohio will soon follow the example of her younger sisters; and moreover, I venture to predict, that in less than twenty years from the present time; a free negro will not be suffered to enter a free state in this Union. This prejudice never can be removed. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" If he could, then might w