taste for eulogy, but give us slander, by wholesale and retail, and we
will gulph it down!

This is a dark picture of the human heart, but I believe a tolerably
correct one!




CHAPTER III.


Having in the preceding chapter dismissed Mrs. Stowe's narrative; I
shall in the following pages, confine my remarks, so far as they refer
to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," to its evident design and manifest tendency.

It was about thirty-five years ago, that the great abolition
excitement broke out in the North. The subject of course, was agitated
previous to that time, but there must have been then, some additional,
or new excitement, for it was at that memorable period, that the South
took the alarm. Previous to that period, as far back as I can
recollect, the subject of slavery was freely discussed in the Southern
States, by clergymen and politicians in public; and it was withal, a
common topic of conversation in the social circle. Throughout the
slave states, at that time, the necessity of enlightening the minds,
and ameliorating the conditions of the slaves was generally seen,
felt, and acknowledged. It was then enforced on church members as a
duty, by ministers of all denominations; and the ministers of the
Gospel rebuked, (sometimes with great severity), harshness, cruelty,
or unkindness to slaves.