A Review of Uncle Toms Cabin | Page 3

such publications without
being misled by them, unless he is, or has been, a resident of a slave
State. It is thus that materials are furnished for abolition papers and
such publications as Uncle Tom's Cabin; and it is thus that the public
mind is poisoned, public morals vitiated, and honest but ignorant men
led to say and do many things, which must, sooner or later, result in
deplorable consequences, unless something can be brought to bear on
the public mind that will counteract the evil. The writer hopes, through
the blessing of God, that the following pages will prove an efficient
antidote.
Southern people have their faults; they err in many things: and far be it
from me, under such circumstances, to become their apologist. It is not
as a defender of the South I appear before the public, but in defense of
my country, North and South. We are all brethren; we are all citizens of
the same heaven-favored country; and how residents of one part of it

can spend their lives in vilifying, traducing, and misrepresenting those
of another portion of it, is, to me, unaccountable. It is strange, indeed! I
entreat my countrymen to reflect soberly on these things; and in the
name of all that is sacred I entreat you, my abolition friends, to pause a
while, in your mad career, and review the whole ground. It may be that
some of you may yet see the error of your course. I cannot give you all
up. I trust in God that you are not all given over to "hardness of heart
and reprobacy of mind." A word to the reader. Pass on--hear me
through--never mind my harsh expressions and uncouth language.
Truth is not very palatable, to any of us, at all times. Crack the nut; it
may be that you will find a kernel within that will reward you for your
trouble.
False impressions have been made, and continue to be made by the
writers alluded to above; sectional hatred is engendered, North and
South; and if this incessant warfare continues, it will, at no very distant
day, produce a dissolution of this Union. This result is inevitable if the
present state of things continues. Has the agitation and discussion of the
question of African slavery, in the free States, resulted in any good, or
is it ever likely to result in any? I flatter myself that I have clearly
shown, in the following pages, that hitherto its consequences have been
evil and only evil, and that nothing but evil can grow out of it in future.
I think that I have adduced historical facts which clearly and
indisputably prove that northern agitation has served but to rivet the
chains of slavery; that it has retarded emancipation; that it has
augmented the evils and hardships of slavery; that it has inflicted injury
on both masters and servants; that it has engendered sectional hatred
which endangers the peace, prosperity, and perpetuity of the Union.
Why, then, will abolitionists persist in a course so inconsistent; so
contrary to reason; so opposed to truth, righteousness, and justice?
They need not tell me that slavery is an evil; that slavery is a curse; that
slavery is a hardship, and that it ought to be extinguished. I admit it; but
this is not the question. On this head I have no controversy with them.
The question is, whether their course of procedure is ever likely to
remove or mitigate the evils of slavery. Are we prepared, in our efforts
to remove the evils of slavery, to incur the risk of subjecting ourselves
to calamities infinitely worse that African slavery itself? Or rather, is
there the remotest probability, supposing the plans and schemes of

abolitionists should be carried out, the Union dissolved, and the country
plunged into civil war, that slavery would thereby be abolished in the
southern States?
These are the questions at issue between the abolition party and the
writer; and these are among the prominent questions discussed in the
following pages. It is true that I have hastily glanced at slavery in all its
bearings, but it was the fell spirit of abolitionism which first attracted
my attention, and induced me to investigate the subject. It was its
revolutionary designs and tendencies, its contempt of all law, human
and Divine, that first impressed my mind with the necessity of prompt
and efficient action on the part of the friends of our country. It was the
unparalleled circulation of Uncle Tom's Cabin that aroused my fears,
and excited in my mind apprehensions of danger. If such productions as
Uncle Tom's Cabin are to give tone to public sentiment in the North,
then assuredly are we in danger. Should Mrs. Stowe's vile aspersion of
southern character, and her loose, reckless