UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

there
the writer with enthusiasm and with hope.
Will thishopenever be realized1 Will those
men at the South,to whom God has given
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 39
b,thepower to perceive and the heart to
feel the unutterable wrong and injustice of
slavery, alwaysremain silentand inactive?
What nobler ambition to a Southern man whether this awful power to bind and to
from this disc-race
to open and to shut the kingdom of
than to deliver his country
1 From the South must the deliverer
in the community, without any
which will not fade : it isprepared
arise. How long shall he delay? There
is a crown brighter than any earthly ambition
"
has ever worn, is a laurel
and waiting
eyes around the world. Let him travel for
for that hero who shallrise up
one forliberty week throughany district of country
and freethat noble and beautiful
either in the South or the North,and ask
country from the burden and disgrace himself how many
of the men whom he
atthe South,
of slavery.
CHAPTER X.
As St. Clare and the Shelbysare the
may not meddle with the body, to prescribe
representatives of one class of masters,so for itsailments, without a certificatethat he
Legreeisthe representative of another ; and, is properlyqualified. The judgemay
not
as all goodmasters are not as enlightened, decide on the laws which relateto property,
as
generous, and as considerate, as St. Clare without a long course of training, and most
and Mr. Shelby, or as carefuland successful
abundant preparation. It is only thisoffice
in religious training as Mrs. Shelby, of master, which contains the power to bind
so all bad masters do not unite the personal and to loose, and to open and shut the kingdom
uglinessțhe coarseness and profaneness, of heaven,and involves responsibility
of Legree.
for the soul as well as the body, that is
Legreeisintroduced not for the sake of thrown out to every hand,and committed
vilifying masters as a class, but forthe sakeof without inquiry to any man of any character.
bringing to the minds of honorable Southern A man may
have made all his propertyby
men, who are masters, a very important feature
piracyupon the highseas, as we have represented
in the system of slavery, upon which,
in the case of Legree, and there is
perhaps,theyhave never reflected. It is no law whatever to prevent his investing
that property in acquiring thisabsolute control
over the soulsand bodies of his fellowbeings.
To the half-maniacdrunkard țo the
the absolute power of master is granted.
In the second partof this book it will be man notorious for hardness and cruelty, to
shown that the legalpower
of the master the man sunk entirely below publicopinion,
amounts to an absolute despotism over body to the bitterinfideland blasphemer, the law
and soul ; and that there is no protection for confides this power, justas freely as to the
the slave'slife or
man on earth.
this: that no Southern law requiresany
test of character from the man to whom
limb,his familyrelations, most honorable and religious
his conscience, nay, more, his eternal interests,
And yet, men who make and uphold these
but the character of the master. laws think they are guiltless before God,
Rev. Charles C. Jones, of Georgia, in because individually theydo not perpetrate
addressing masters țellsthem that they have
the power to open the kingdomof heaven
or to shut itțo their slaves{ReligiousInstruction
To the pirateLegree the law gives a power
of the Negroes, p. 158), and a
South Carolinian,
a recent articlein Fraser's
Magazine,apparently
a
spirit, thus acknowledges
awful power :
very serious
the fact of this
' '
Yes, we would have the
whole South to feel that the sotd of the
slave is in some sense in the master's keeping,
him hereafter.1'
and to be chargedagainst
Now, it is respectfully submitted to men
of this highclass,who are the law-makers,
loose,
heaven,ought to be intrustedto every man
other qualification
than that of property to buy. Let
this gentlemanof South Carolina cast his
"
meets are fitto be trustedwith this power,
how many
are fitto be trusted with their own
souls,much less with those of others 1
Now, in all the theory of government as
it is managed in our country,just in proportion
to the extent of power is the strictness
with which qualification for the proper
exercise of it is demanded. The physician
the wrongs which theyallow others to perpetrate
!
which no man of woman born,save One,
ever was goodenoughto exercise.
Are there such men as Legree ? Let
any one go into the low districtsand dens
of New York, letthem e;o into some of the