UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

he
"
The
" This,
And
power
"
This
This
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 123
cient system of popular education' than we
1victed of a brutalityat which humanity turns
ever have succeeded in carrying out in
America. He districted his kingdom in the
most thorough manner,
and obliged every
parent, whether he would or not, to have his
children thoroughly educated.
If Ave reply to all this, as we do, that the
possession of absolute power
in a man qualified
to use it right is undoubtedly calculated
for the good of the state, but that there
conscience 7
are so few men that know how to use it,
that this form of government
whole, a safe one,
argument
that
goes
is not, on the
then we have stated an
to overthrow slavery as
much as it does a despotic government ;
for
certainly the chances are much greater
finding one man. in the course of fifty years,
who is capable of wisely using this power,
than of finding thousands of men every
day in our streets, who can be trusted with
such
power.
of
It is a painful and most serious
fact, that America trusts to the hands
of the most brutal men of her country,
equally with the best, that despotic power
which she thinks an unsafe thing even in
the hands of the enlightened, educated and
cultivated Emperor of the Russias.
pale ; but, for all that, American slave-law
power,
"
power over the soul.
over the body, and
On which side, then, stands the American
nation, in the great controversy
which
now going on hetween self-government and
despotism 7 On which side does America
stand, in the great controversy for liberty of
Do foreign governments exclude their
population from the reading
is
of the Bible 7
slave of America is excluded by the
most effectual means possible. Do we say,
"
Ah ! but read the Bible our slaves,
we to
and
present the gospel orally 7 "
is
precisely what religious despotism in Italy
says.
Do we say
that Ave have
no objection
to our slaves reading the Bible, if they will
stop there ; but that with this there will come
in a flood of general intelligence, which will
upset the existing state of things 7
"
precisely what is said in Italy.
is
Do we say Ave should be Avillingthat the
slaA'e should read his Bible, but that he, in
his ignorance, will draw false and erroneous
With all our republican prejudices, we
cannot deny that Nicholas is a man of talent,
with a mind liberalized by education
; we
conclusions from it, and for that reason Ave
prefer to impart its truths to him orally 7
also, is precisely what the religious
have been informed, also, that he is a man
of serious and religiouscharacter
;
"
certainly,
despotism of Europe says.
Do we say, in our vain-glory, that despotic
will none the less trust him with this irresponsible
acting as he does in the
of all
eye
government dreads the coming in of
anything
the world, must have great restraint
upon j
calculated to elevate and educate the
him from public opinion, and a high sense of people 7 is there
" not the same dread
character. But who is the man to whom \ through all the despotic slave gOArernments
American laws intrust
powers more absolute [ of America 7
than those of Nicholas of Russia, or Ferdinand
On which side, then, does the American
of Naples 7 He
may
have been Ination a
stand, in the great, last question of
'
pirate on the high seas ; he may
be a drunk- the
age 7
ard; he may,
like Souther, have been con-j