Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, vol 1 | Page 3

Stowe: I have been requested by those kind friends under whose
hospitable roof we are assembled to give some expression to the sincere
and cordial welcome with which, we greet your arrival in this country. I
find real difficulty in making this attempt, not from want of matter, nor
from want of feeling, but because it is not in the power of any language
I can command, to give adequate expression to the affectionate
enthusiasm which pervades all ranks of our community, and which is
truly characteristic of the humanity and the Christianity of Great Britain.
We welcome Mrs. Stowe as the honored instrument of that noble
impulse which public opinion and public feeling throughout
Christendom have received against the demoralizing and degrading
system of human slavery. That system is still, unhappily, identified in
the minds of many with the supposed material interests of society, and
even with the well being of the slaves themselves; but the plausible
arguments and ingenious sophistries by which it has been defended
shrink with shame from the facts without exaggeration, the principles
without compromise, the exposures without indelicacy, and the
irrepressible glow of hearty feeling--O, how true to nature!--which
characterize Mrs. Stowe's immortal book. Yet I feel assured that the
effect produced by Uncle Tom's Cabin is not mainly or chiefly to be
traced to the interest of the narrative, however captivating, nor to the
exposures of the slave system, however withering: these would, indeed,
be sufficient to produce a good effect; but this book contains more and
better than even these; it contains what will never be lost sight of--the

genuine application to the several branches of the subject of the sacred
word of God. By no part of this wonderful work has my own mind
been so permanently impressed as by the thorough legitimacy of the
application of Scripture,--no wresting, no mere verbal adaptation, but in
every instance the passage cited is made to illustrate something in the
narrative, or in the development of character, in strictest accordance
with the design of the passage in its original sacred context. We
welcome Mrs. Stowe, then, as an honored fellow-laborer in the highest
and best of causes; and I am much mistaken if this tone of welcome be
not by far the most congenial to her own feelings. We unaffectedly
sympathize with much which she must feel, and, as a lady, more
peculiarly feel, in passing through that ordeal of gratulation which is
sure to attend her steps in every part of our country; and I am persuaded
that we cannot manifest our gratitude for her past services in any way
more acceptable to herself than by earnest prayer on her behalf that she
may be kept in the simplicity of Christ, enjoying in her daily
experience the tender consolations of the Divine Spirit, and in the midst
of the most flattering commendations saying and feeling, in the
instincts of a renewed heart, 'Not unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but
unto thy name be the praise, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.'"
PROFESSOR STOWE then rose, and said, "If we are silent, it is not
because we do not feel, but because we feel more than we can express.
When that book was written, we had no hope except in God. We had no
expectation of reward save in the prayers of the poor. The surprising
enthusiasm which has been excited by the book all over Christendom is
an indication that God has a work to be done in the cause of
emancipation. The present aspect of things in the United States is
discouraging. Every change in society, every financial revolution, every
political and ecclesiastical movement, seems to pass and leave the
African race without help. Our only resource is prayer. God surely
cannot will that the unhappy condition of this portion of his children
should continue forever. There are some indications of a movement in
the southern mind. A leading southern paper lately declared editorially
that slavery is either right or wrong: if it is wrong, it is to be abandoned:
if it is right, it must be defended. The _Southern Press_, a paper
established to defend the slavery interest at the seat of government, has
proposed that the worst features of the system, such as the separation of

families, should be abandoned. But it is evident that with that
restriction the system could not exist. For instance, a man wants to buy
a cook; but she has a husband and seven children. Now, is he to buy a
man and seven children, for whom he has no use, for the sake of having
a cook? Nothing on the present occasion has been so grateful to our
feelings as the reference made by Dr. M'Neile to the Christian character
of the