UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

4. We shall endeavor to producea new and
radical investigation of the principles of human
rights, and of the relationsof all justlegislation
to them,deriving our principles from the nature
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 225
manner communities where such laws exist may
relieve themselves at once, in perfectsafety and
both of the guilt and dangersof the system.
7. And, until communities can be aroused to do
their duties,we shall endeavor to illustrateand
enforce the duties of individual slave-holdersin
such communities.
with them was, that,thoughcalm and
kind,theywere felt to be in earnest ; and
at once Leviathan was wide awake.
The next practical question was, Shall the
third printing-press be defended, or shallit
also be destroyed?
There was a tremendous excitement, and a
greatpopulartumult. The timid,prudent,
and support him in his right
to publishwhatever he pleases, holdinghim Responsib
peace-loving majority, who are to be found in
onlyto the laws of the land.
every city,who care not what principles
prevail, so theypromote their own interest These resolutions,
proposed, were to be
were wavering and pusillanimous, and thus taken into considerationat a final meetinoof
the citizens, which was to bo held the
encouraged the mob. Every motive was
urgedto induce Mr. Beecher and Mr. Lovejoyto
foregothe attempt to reestablishthe That meetingwas held. Their first step
next day.
press. The former was toldthata pricehad was to depriveMr. Beecher,and all who
been set on hishead in "
Missouri, a fashionable
were not citizensof that
mode of meetingargument in the county, of the right
proslavery
partsof this country. Mr. LovejoyThe committee then reported thattheydeeply
of debating on the reportto be presented.
had been so longthreatenedwith assassination,
regretted the excited state
him was
That the free communication of opinionisone of
To views presented in this spirit and the invaluable rights of man ; and that every citizen
manner one would think there could have may freely speak,write or
print, on any subject,
been no rationalobjection. The only difficulty
beingresponsible for the abuse of the liberty.
That maintenance of these principles should be
independent of all regard to persons and sentiments
also told thatthe interestsof the college
which he was president would be sacrificed,
and that,if he chose to riskhis own safety,
he had no righto riskthoseinterests.But
Mr. Beecher and Mr. Lovejoyboth feltthat
to prevent free discussionin general, they
deemed it indispensable to the publictranquillity
the very foundationprinciple of free institutions
that Mr. Lovejoyshould not publish
had
at thistime been seriously compromised,
the country, by yielding
a
paper in that city; not wishingto reflect
all over
in the slightest degree upon Mr. Lovejoy's
up the right of freediscussionat the clamors character and motives. All that the meeting
of the mob ; thatit was a precedent of very waitedfor now was, to hear whether Mr.
wide and very dangerousapplication. Lovejoywould complywith their recommendation.
In a publicmeeting,Mr. Beecher addressed
the citizenson the rightof maintaining
read to them some of those eloquent passages
in which Dr. Channing had maintained
the same rights in very similarcircumstances
of the human mind, the relationsof man to God, in Boston. He read to them extracts from
and the revealed will of the Creator.
foreignpapers, which showed how the
5. We shall then endeavor to examine the slavelaws
of our land in the lightof these
American charactersufferedin foreign lands
principles,
and from
to prove that
the
they are essentially sinful, and
prevalence in America of Lynch
that theyare at war alike with the will of God law and mob violence. He defended the
and all the interestsof the master,the slave,and
right
of Mr. Lovejoyto printand publish
the community at large.
his
6. We
conscientiousopinions
shall then endeavor to show in what
; and. finally, he
read from some Southern journalsextracts
condemned the
in which theyhad strongly
course of the mob, and vindicated Mr.
Lovejoy's righto express his opinions. He
then proposed to them thattheyshould pass
resolutionsto the following effect :
.
That theyshould be especially maintained with
regard to unpopularsentiments, since no others
need the protectionof law.
That on these groundsalone,and without regard
to political and moral differences, we
agree
to protec the press and propertyof the editor of
the Alton Observer,
One
that the exigences
free inquiry, and of supporting hissympathyforMr. Lovejoy, characterizing
every man in the rightof publishing and him as an unfortunateindividual, hopingthat
speakinghis conscientiousopinions Ḥe theywould all considerthat he had a wife
15
of feeling ; that
theycherished strongconfidence that ^he-
re-
day and nightțhatthe argument with
something musty. Mr. Beecher was citizenswould refrain from undue excitements;
of
of the time
quired
a course of moderation and compromise;
and that,while there was no disposition
of the committee arose, and expressed