THE REV. DR. M'NEILE, who had been requested by the respected host to
express to Mrs. Stowe the hearty congratulations of the first meeting of
friends she had seen in England, thus addressed her: "Mrs. 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 book.
Incredible as it may seem to those who are without prejudice, it is
nevertheless a fact that this book was condemned by some religious
newspapers in the United States as anti-Christian, and its author
associated with infidels and disorganizers; and had not it been for the
decided expression of the mind of English Christians, and of Christendom
itself, on this point, there is reason to fear that the proslavery power
of the United States would have succeeded in putting the book under
foot. Therefore it is peculiarly gratifying that so full an indorsement
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
removed by the benign influence of the love of Christ, and no other
power is competent to the work."