UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

understand "
Latin, "It
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 201
is easy to go to the
devil,but the devil to get back."
Some
uncharitablepeoplemight,perhaps, was offeredfor the apprehension of the same
say that the preachers of such doctrines are Arthur Tappan, or of Le Roy Sunderland,
as likelyas anybodyto have an experimentala
Methodist clergyman of New York. Of
knowledge on this point. The idea course, as none of these persons could be
of this jovial old father instructing a class seized exceptin violationof the Jaws of the
of black " Sams " "
and young Topsys "
in state where they were citizens, this was
the mysteries of.the Assembly'sCatechism offering a public reward foran act of felony.
istrulypicturesque !
That
of slavery have been
of Horace Mann the following examples are
given(p.467). In 1831 the Legislature
of Georgiaoffered fivethousand dollarsto
any one
same state,September4, 1835, it was the punishment ot any such offender in any part
formally recommended to the governor to
of theState of Mississippi where he may
be found.
offer,by proclamation, fivethousand dollars
Resolved, That the clergy of the State of Mississippi
be herebyrecommended at once to take a
reward for the apprehension of any one of stand upon this subject; and that their further
ten persons, citizens, with one exception, of silence in relation thereto,at this crisis,will,in
New York and our
Massachusetts, whose names opinion, be subject to serious censure.
were given. The Milledgeville (Ga.) The treatment to which persons were exposed,
Federal Union of February1st,1836, when taken up by any of these vigilance
contained an offer of ten thousand dollars committees, as suspected ofanti-slavery
for the arrest and kidnapping of the Rev. A. sentiments, be gathered from the following
may
A. Phelps,of New York. The committee account. The writer has a distinct
of vigilance of the parish of East Feliciana recollection of the" circumstances at the
offered, in the Louisville Journal of Oct. presenttime,as
15, 1835,fiftythousand dollars to any
person who would deliverinto theirhands
Arthur Tappan,of New York. At a public
meetingat Mount Meigs,Alabama,Aug.
13,1836,the Hon. Bedford Ginress in the
chair,a reward of fiftythousand dollars
Throughout all the Southern Statesassociations
Mr. Smylie'sopinions on the subject were formed,called committees of
amplysupported and vigilance, for the takingof measures for
carried out by leadingclergymen in every suppressing abolition opinions, and for the
denomination, Ave mightgivevolumes of punishmentby Lynch law of suspected
quotations to show.
persons. At Charleston, South Carolina, a
A second head,however,isyetto be considered,
mob of thisdescription forced open the postoffice,
and made a generalinspection, at
with regardto the influenceof the
Southern church and clergy.
theirpleasure, of itscontents ; and whatever
It is well known that the Southern politipublication
they found there which they
cal communityhave taken theirstand upon consideredto be of a dangerousand anti-
they made a publicbonfire
the position that the institutionof slaveryslaverytendency,
shall not be open to discussion. In many of, in the street. A largepublicmeeting
of the slave states stringent laws exist, subjecting
was held,a few daysafterwards, to complete
to fine and imprisonment, and even the preparation for excludinganti-slavery
death, any who speak or publishanything principles from publication, and forferreting
upon the subject, except in itsfavor. They out persons suspected of abolitionism, that
have not only done thiswith regardto citizens
they might be subjectedto Lynch law.
of slave states, but theyhave shown the Similar popularmeetings were held through
strongest disposition to do it with regard to the Southern and Western States. At one
citizensof freestates ; and when thesediscussions
of these,held in Clinton, Mississippi, in the
could not be repelled by regularlaw, yea,r 1835,the following resolutions were
theyhave encouraged the use of illegal measures.
In the published lettersand speeches ResolvedȚhat slaverythroughthe South and
West is not felt as an evil,moral or political, but
it is recognizedin reference to the actual,and not
to any Utopiancondition of our slaves,as a blessing
both to master and slave.
who would arrest and bringto trial
conviction, in Georgia, a citizenof Mas-
ResolvedȚhat it is our decided opinionthat
and
sachusetts,
any individualwho dares to circulate, with a view
named William LloydGarrison. to effectuatethe designsof the abolitionists, any
This law was approvedby W. of the
Lumpkin, incendiary tracts or newspapers
now in
a course of transmission to
Governor,Dec. 26, 1831. At a meeting
this country, is justly
worthy,
of slave-holdersheld at Sterling,
the
in the sight of God and man, of immediate
death ; and we doubt not that such would be
the victim of thisinjustice
was a member of the seminarythen under
the care of her father.
Amos Dresser,now a missionary in Jamaica,
was a theological student at Lane Seminary, near