A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin

SECTION I.

Since the following chapters were prepared for the press, my attention was directed by a friend, to a letter published in a Northern paper, which detailed some shocking things, that the writer had seen and heard in the South; and also some severe strictures on the institution of domestic slavery in the Southern States, &c.

I have in the following work, related an anecdote of a young lawyer, who being asked how he could stand up before the court, and with unblushing audacity state falsehoods; he very promptly answered, "I was well paid; I received a large fee, and could therefore afford to lie." I infer from the class of letters referred to, that the writers are generally "well paid" for their services.

It has long been a practice of abolition editors in the Northern States, when they were likely to run short of matter, to employ some worthy brother, to travel South, and manufacture articles for their papers. Many of those articles are falsehoods; and most of them, if not all, are exaggerations.

No man who will consent to go south, and perform this dirty work, is capable of writing truth. And moreover, many of the letters published in abolition papers, purporting to have been written from some part of the South, were concocted by editors and others at home; the writers never having traveled fifty miles from their native villages. But some of them do travel South and write letters; and it is of but little consequence what they see, or what they hear; they have engaged to write letters, and letters they must write: letters too, of a certain character; and if they fail to find material in the South, it then devolves on them to manufacture it.

They have engaged to furnish food for the depraved appetites of a certain class of readers in the North; and furnish it they must, by some means. They truly, are an unlucky set of fellows, for I never yet heard of one of them, who was so fortunate as to find anything good or praiseworthy among Southern people. This is very strange indeed! They travel South with an understanding on the part of their employer, and with an intention on their part, to misrepresent the South, and to excite prejudice in Northern minds. How devoid of patriotism, truth and justice. The mischief done by these misrepresentations is inconceivable. If every abolitionist North of Mason and Dixon's line, were separately and individually asked, from whence he derived his opinions and prejudices in relation to Southern men, and Southern slavery, nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand would answer, that they had learned all that they knew about slavery and slaveholders from the publication of abolitionists: not one in a thousand among them having ever seen a southern slave or his master. "Truth is stranger than fiction;" and it is also becoming more rare. No wonder people are misled, when the country is flooded with abolition papers and Uncle Tom's Cabin. No one can read 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 and wicked misrepresentations of the institution of slavery in the southern States ever become accredited in the northern section of the Union I fear the consequence. I sometimes survey the condition of my country with consternation and dismay, and tremble in prospect of what may yet occur. History records the rise and fall of nations. We read of revolutions, butcheries, and blood. We have flattered ourselves that our beloved country for ages to come, and probably forever, is destined to escape these calamities. But, O God! how mortifying the reflection that there are now, in our midst, religious fanatics and political demagogues, who for a little paltry gain or notoriety would plunge us into all these evils!

I have repeatedly, in the following pages charged the abolition faction with revolutionary designs and tendencies. Some may doubt the truth and justice of the charge; but I beg such persons to recollect that abolition writers and orators have, times without number, avowed an intention to overthrow this government; but it matters not what their avowed designs and intentions are, for their lawless and seditious course leads directly to that result. If they ever succeed in carrying out their plans and schemes we know that revolution and disunion will be the consequence. It was remarked by Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New York, on a certain occasion, that "abolitionists are seeking to destroy our happy Union." Chancellor Walworth says, "They are contemplating a violation of the rights of property secured by the Constitution, and pursuing measures which must lead to civil war."

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