A Review of Uncle Toms Cabin | Page 2

I could, however, have re-written the work, I would have changed, in some places, the phraseology. I have brought many and serious charges against the abolition faction in the United States, but those who are not guilty of the charges alleged, need not feel aggrieved thereby. My remarks, for the most part refer to what is called _ultra-abolitionism_.
It is probable that I have occasionally quoted the language of others, without marking the same as a quotation. If so, it was not intentional. I could not, in doubtful cases, refer to writers whose ideas I may have used, on account of ill health. In quoting from the Bible I relied almost entirely on my own memory; but I presume I am generally correct.
I have now finished a task--by no means a pleasant one--and I have done it with a trembling hand, for the subject is a delicate one--a subject of intense interest, under the existing circumstances, to every American citizen. To me, the signs of the times appear to be ominous--to forebode evil! I sometimes fear that our political sun has passed the zenith--lowering clouds intercept his rays, and at times obscure his former brightness, majesty and glory. The ship of State is tossed by furious winds, and threatened by boisterous waves--rocks and quicksands are on the right and left--an awful wreck awaits her, and can only be averted by vigilance, prudence, caution and circumspection on the part of her crew.
GREENCASTLE, IND., May, 1853.

Transcriber's Note: The CONTENTS are printed at the end of this book.

REVIEW OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN;
OR
AN ESSAY ON SLAVERY.
INTRODUCTION.
SECTION I.
Since the following chapters were prepared for the press, my attention was directed by a friend, to a letter published in a Northern paper, which detailed some shocking things, that the writer had seen and heard in the South; and also some severe strictures on the institution of domestic slavery in the Southern States, &c.
I have in the following work, related an anecdote of a young lawyer, who being asked how he could stand up before the court, and with unblushing audacity state falsehoods; he very promptly answered, "I was well paid; I received a large fee, and could therefore afford to lie." I infer from the class of letters referred to, that the writers are generally "well paid" for their services.
It has long been a practice of abolition editors in the Northern States, when they were likely to run short of matter, to employ some worthy brother, to travel South, and manufacture articles for their papers. Many of those articles are falsehoods; and most of them, if not all, are exaggerations.
No man who will consent to go south, and perform this dirty work, is capable of writing truth. And moreover, many of the letters published in abolition papers, purporting to have been written from some part of the South, were concocted by editors and others at home; the writers never having traveled fifty miles from their native villages. But some of them do travel South and write letters; and it is of but little consequence what they see, or what they hear; they have engaged to write letters, and letters they must write: letters too, of a certain character; and if they fail to find material in the South, it then devolves on them to manufacture it.
They have engaged to furnish food for the depraved appetites of a certain class of readers in the North; and furnish it they must, by some means. They truly, are an unlucky set of fellows, for I never yet heard of one of them, who was so fortunate as to find anything good or praiseworthy among Southern people. This is very strange indeed! They travel South with an understanding on the part of their employer, and with an intention on their part, to misrepresent the South, and to excite prejudice in Northern minds. How devoid of patriotism, truth and justice. The mischief done by these misrepresentations is inconceivable. If every abolitionist North of Mason and Dixon's line, were separately and individually asked, from whence he derived his opinions and prejudices in relation to Southern men, and Southern slavery, nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand would answer, that they had learned all that they knew about slavery and slaveholders from the publication of abolitionists: not one in a thousand among them having ever seen a southern slave or his master. "Truth is stranger than fiction;" and it is also becoming more rare. No wonder people are misled, when the country is flooded with abolition papers and Uncle Tom's Cabin. No one can read such publications without being misled by them, unless he is, or has been, a resident of a slave State. It is thus that materials are furnished for abolition papers and such publications as Uncle Tom's Cabin; and it