“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” in which romantic fiction and gross misrepresentation occupy the place of truth, and by which, a mis-guided and false philanthropy is awakened, and sent abroad to elicit false sentiments, and set at work false principles, that, in their blind and ignorant career, may result in consequences the most fearful and fatal.
The despots and Monarchists of Europe, who dread nothing, at this time, so much, as the increasing and extending influence of our Republican Institutions—for they see in them a power which nothing earthly can resist—hail with rapture and delight, anything that throws a stigma, real or false, upon our country and our institutions. And believing, or affecting to believe, more firmly all the absurd fictions and sickly sentiment contained in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” than they do in the Bible, their joy and rejoicing are unbounded; for they seem to think that from that “Cabin” they can get a club by which they will be able to dash out the brains of the young Western Lion of Liberty, scatter our institutions to the winds; divide our rich inheritance among themselves, and establish in our country the blessings of monarchy—that prefers white slaves to black.
And it is humiliating to the pride, and painful to the heart of every true American patriot, who loves his country and glories in her institutions, to witness the abject and servile sycophancy of some in our land, who, incapable of appreciating the blessings they enjoy, or despising them, will crawl to the feet of gilded despotism; lay their offerings upon its unholy shrine; pander to its appetites and lusts, and would sell their birthright, and barter their country’s honor, for a smile from a faded Duchess or Dowager; or for the honor of touching glasses with some poodle headed Lord of Great Britain.
I should prove recreant, indeed, in duty to God, my country and liberty, were I to write a book of a purely political, moral or religious character, which would, at this time, receive the flattering commendation of the aristocracy and monarchists of Europe, where religion is a mockery or a farce, or at best, an engine of State, in an unholy alliance with cruelty and oppression, where virtue is shamed into retirement and obscurity, and where morality is among the discarded relics of an obsolete age.
Constituted as the governments of Europe are, and governed by those principles that sustain them, and while we remain as we
