UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

that
"
by
for
KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
37
clothed,"c. ; but, sir țhis is far from provingat Glasgow,Kentuckyțhe copy before us conveying
that negroes ought to be slaves.
The
celebratedJohn Randolph, of Roanoke,
said in Congress,
one occasion :
Sir,I envy neither the heart nor the head of
that man from the North who riseshere to defend
The book comprises the usuallyquotedfacts associated
the Scriptures, accompaniedby the opinions and
slavery on principle.
arguments of another man in relation thereto.
And this sort of thingmay go
on to the end' of
The following lines from the will of this time. It can
accomplishnothingtowards the
eccentric man show that thisclear sense of perpetuationof slavery. The book is called
"
justice, which is a gift of Bible Defence of Slavery;
superior natures,
and Origin, Fortunes,
and History, of the NegroRace." Bible defence
at last producedsome appropriate fruitsin of slavery ! There is no such thingas a Bible
practice :
defence of slavery at th" presentday. Slaveryin
the United States is a social institution, originating
J giveto my slaves their freedomțo which in the convenience and my
cupidity of our ancestors,
conscience tellsme theyare justlyentitled. It has existingby state laws and recognized to a
a long time been a matter of the deepestregre to
"
certain extent the recovery of slave property
me, that the circumstances under which I inherited
the constitution. And nobodywould
them, and the obstacles thrown in the pretendthat,if it were inexpedient and able
way by the laws of the for
land,have prevented my
any
man or,
any state to continue to hold
them in my life-time, which it is slaves,they would be bound to do so, on the
South, and which justifies slaverydirectly
from the Bible, cannot be sufficiently
regretted.
The book before us exhibits
Such men are shocked to find
greatresearch,but
is obnoxious to severe criticism, on account of its
their spiritual teachers less conscientiousgratuitous
assumptions Ṭhe writerisconstantly
than themselves ; and if the Biblical argument
assumingthis,that,and the other. In a work of
succeeds in this
bewildering them,it sort, produces
a " "
doubtless" this,and no doubt"
scepticism with the other,and
regardto the Bible
" such is our belief," with respect
to importantpremises, will not be acceptable to
itself. Professor Stowe states that,duringthe intelligent reader. Many of the positions assumed
hisresidencein Ohio,he visitedat the house
are ludicrous ; and the fancyof the writer
of a gentlemanwho had once been runs to a Virginian
exuberance in putting words and speeches
planter, and
into the mouths of the
duringthe first
ancients,predicated upon
years the brief record of Scripture history
of his life was an avowed sceptic Ḥe
Ṭhe argument
from the curse of Ham is not worth the paper
stated that his scepticismwas entirely it is written upon. It is justequivalent to that
"
referableto thisone cause, hisminister
of Blackwood's Magazine,we remember examining
had constructeda scriptural argument
in defence of slaverywhich he was unable
the assurance that it is the "fifth edition"
stereotyped."And we have no doubt it is ; and
the fiftieth edition may be published ; but it will
amount to nothing, for there is nothingin it.
with the history of
slavery as recorded in
to carry our
pages, from the pen of Rev. Josiah Priest, itourselves as our fatherAdam did. With a little
A.M.,and published by Rev. W. S. Brown, M.D., more common
sense, and much lessof the uncom-
unprofit-
emancipating
my
full intention to do in case I can
groundof a "Bible defence" of it.
accomplish
Slaveryis
it.
recorded in the Bible,and approved,with many
degradingcharacteristics. War is recorded in
The influence on such minds as these of
the Bible,and approved,under what seems to us
the extreme of
that kind of theological teaching which
cruelty Ḅut are slavery and war
prevails
to endure forever,because we find them in the
in the majorityof pulpitsat the Bible 1 Or, are they to cease at once and forever,
because the Bible inculcates peace and brotherhood?
some
years since,in referenceto the admission
of Rothschild to Parliament. The writer maintained
the religious obligation of the Christian
public to perpetuate the political disabilitiesof
the Jews,because it would be resisting the Divine
will to remove them, in view of the "curse"
which the aforesaid Christian Pharisee understood
to answer, and that his moral sense was so
shocked by the idea that the Bible defended
such an atrocious systemțhat he became an
entireunbeliever, and so continued until he
to be levelledagainst the sons of Abraham.
came under the ministration of a clergymanAdmittingthat God lias cursed both the Jewish
in Ohio,who succeeded in presenting to him race and the descendants of Ham, He is able to
the true scriptural view of the subject Ḥe
fulfilHis purpose, though the " rest of mankind"
should in all
immediately threw aside his
things
scepticism, and
act up to the benevolent precepts
of the "Divine law." Man may very
became a member of a Christianchurch.
safely cultivate the highestprinciples of the
So we hear the Baltimore Sun, a
paper
Christian dispensation, and leave God to work out
in a slave state, and no way suspected of the fulfilment of His curse.
leaning towards abolitionism, thus
According to the same book and the same
scornfully
logic,
all mankind being
disposing of the scriptural
under a "
curse,"none of us
argument : oughtto work out any alleviationfor ourselves,
and we are sinningheinously
harnessingsteam to
Messrs. Burgess,Taylor " Co.,Sun Iron Building,
the performance of manual labor,cuttingwheat by
send us a
copy of a work of imposing exterior,
McCormick*s diablerie, and laying hold of the lightning
a handsome work of nearlysix hundred
messages for us, instead of footing