has been given the work, in this respect, by eminent Christians of the
highest character in Europe; for, however some in the United States may
affect to despise what is said by the wise and good of this kingdom and
the Christian world, they do feel it, and feel it intensely." In answer
to an inquiry by Dr. M'Neile as to the mode in which southern Christians
defended the institution, Dr. Stowe remarked that "a great change had
taken place in that respect during the last thirty years. Formerly all
Christians united in condemning the system; but of late some have begun
to defend it on scriptural grounds. The Rev. Mr. Smylie, of Mississippi,
wrote a pamphlet in the defensive; and Professor Thornwell, of South
Carolina, has published the most candid and able statement of that
argument which has been given. Their main reliance is on the system of
Mosaic servitude, wholly unlike though it was to the American system of
slavery. As to what this American system of slavery is, the best
documents for enlightening the minds of British Christians are the
commercial newspapers of the slaveholding states. There you see slavery
as it is, and certainly without any exaggeration. Read the
advertisements for the sale of slaves and for the apprehension of
fugitives, the descriptions of the persons of slaves, of dogs for
hunting slaves, &c., and you see how the whole matter as viewed by the
southern mind. Say what they will about it, practically they generally
regard the separation of families no more than the separation of cattle,
and the slaves as so much property, and nothing else. Their own papers
show that the pictures of the internal slave trade given in Uncle Tom,
so far from being overdrawn, fall even below the truth. Go on, then, in
forming and expressing your views on this subject. In laboring for the
overthrow of American slavery you are pursuing a course of Christian
duty as legitimate as in laboring to suppress the suttees of India, the
cannibalism of the Fejee Islands, and other barbarities of heathenism,
of which human slavery is but a relic. These evils can be finally