THE REV. DR. WARDLAW was introduced by the chairman, and spoke as
follows:--
"The members of the Glasgow Ladies' New Antislavery Association and the
citizens of Glasgow, now assembled, hail with no ordinary satisfaction,
and with becoming gratitude to a kindly protecting Providence, the safe
arrival amongst them of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. They feel obliged by
her accepting, with so much promptitude and cordiality, the invitation
addressed to her--an invitation intended to express the favor they bore
to her, and the honor in which they held her, as the eminently gifted
authoress of Uncle Tom's Cabin--a work of humble name, but of high
excellence and world-wide celebrity; a work the felicity of whose
conception is more than equalled by the admirable tact of its execution,
and the Christian benevolence of its design, by its exquisite adaptation
to its accomplishment; distinguished by the singular variety and
consistent discrimination of its characters; by the purity of its
religious and moral principles; by its racy humor, and its touching
pathos, and its effectively powerful appeals to the judgment, the
conscience, and the heart; a work, indeed, of whose sterling worth the
earnest test is to be found in the fact of its having so universally
touched and stirred the bosom of our common humanity, in all classes of
society, that its humble name has become 'a household word,' from the
palace to the cottage, and of the extent of its circulation having been
unprecedented in the history of the literature of this or of any other
age or country. They would, at the same time, include in their hearty
welcome the Rev. C.E. Stowe, Professor of Theological Literature in the
Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, whose eminent
qualifications, as a classical scholar, a man of general literature, and
a theologian, have recently placed him in a highly honorable and
responsible position, and who, on the subject of slavery, holds the same
principles and breathes the same spirit of freedom with his accomplished
partner; and, along with them too, another member of the same singularly
talented family with herself. They delight to think of the amount of
good to the cause of emancipation and universal liberty which her Cabin
has already done, and to anticipate the still larger amount it is yet
destined to do, now that the Key to the Cabin has triumphantly shown it
to be no fiction; and in whatever further efforts she may be honored of
Heaven to make in the same noble cause, they desire, unitedly and
heartily, to cheer her on, and bid her 'God speed.' I cannot but feel
myself highly honored in having been requested to move this resolution.
In doing so, I have the happiness of introducing to a Glasgow audience a
lady from the transatlantic continent, the extraordinary production of
whose pen, referred to in the resolution, had made her name familiar in
our country and through Europe, ere she appeared in person among us. My
judgment and my heart alike fully respond to every thing said in the
resolution respecting that inimitable work. We are accustomed to make a
distinction between works of nature and works of art, but in a sense
which, all will readily understand, this is preeminently both. As a work
of art, it bears upon it, throughout, the stamp of original and varied
genius. And yet, throughout, it equally bears the impress of nature--of
human nature--in its worst and its best, and all its intermediate
phases. The man who has read that little volume without laughing and
crying alternately--without the meltings of pity, the thrillings of
horror, and the kindlings of indignation--would supply a far better
argument for a distinct race than a negro. [Loud laughter and cheers.]
He must have a humanity peculiarly his own. And he who can read it
without the breathings of devotion must, if he calls himself a
Christian, have a Christianity as unique and questionable as his
humanity. [Cheering.] Never did work produce such a sensation. Among us
that sensation has happily been all of one kind. It has been the
stirring of universal sympathy and unbounded admiration. Not so in the
country of its own and of its gifted authoress's birth. There, the
ferment has been among the friends as well as the foes of slavery. Among
the former all is rage. Among the latter, while there are some--we trust
not a few--who take the same high and noble position with the talented
authoress, there are too many, we fear, who are frightened by this
uncompromising boldness, and who are drawn back rather than drawn
forward by it--who 'halt between two opinions,' and are the advocates of
medium principles and medium measures. By many among ourselves, the
excitement which has been stirred is contemplated with apprehension.
They regard it as unfavorable to emancipation, and likely to retard
rather than to advance its progress. I must confess myself of a somewhat
different mind. That the cause may be obstructed by it for a time, may
be true. But it will work well in the long run. Good will ultimately
come out of it. Stir is better than stagnancy. Irritation is better than
apathy. Whence does it arise? From two sources. The conscience and the
honor of the country have both been touched. Conscience winces under the
touch. The provocation shows it to be ill at ease. The wound is painful,
and it naturally awakens fretfulness and resentment. But by and by the
angry excitement will subside, and the salutary conviction will remain
and operate. The national honor, too, has been touched. Our friends
across the wave boast, and with good reason, of the free principles of
their constitution. They glory in their liberty. But they cannot fail to
feel the inconsistency of their position, and the exposure of it to the
world kindles on the cheek the blush of shame and the reddening fire of
displeasure. Now, the blush has aright source. It is the blush of
patriotism--it is for their country. But there is anger with the shame;
for few things are more galling than to feel that to be wrong which you
are unable to justify, and which, yet, you are not prepared to
relinquish. [Loud applause.] On the whole, I cannot but regard the
agitation which has been produced as an auspicious, rather than a
discouraging omen. It was when the waters of the pool were troubled that
their healing virtue was imparted. Let us then hope that the troubling
of the waters by this ministering angel of mercy may impregnate them
with a similar sanative influence, [the reverend doctor here pointed
towards Mrs. Stowe, while the audience burst out with enthusiastic
acclamations and waving of handkerchiefs,] and thus ultimately
contribute to the healing of the ghastly wounds of the chain and the
lash, and to the setting of the crushed and bowed down erect in the
soundness and dignity of their true manhood. [Loud cheering.] Sorry we
are that Mrs. Stowe should appear amongst us in a state of broken health
and physical exhaustion. No one who looks at the Cabin and at the Key,
and who knows aught of the effect of severe mental labor on the bodily
frame, will marvel at this. We fondly trust, and earnestly pray, that
her temporary sojourn among us may, by the divine blessing, recruit her
strength, and contribute to the prolongation of a life so promising of
benefit to suffering humanity, and to the glory of God. [Cheers.]
Meanwhile she enjoys the happy consciousness that she is suffering in a
good cause. A better there could not be. It is one which involves the
well being, corporeal and mental, physical and spiritual, temporal and
eternal, of degraded, plundered, oppressed, darkened, brutalized,
perishing millions. And, while we delight in furnishing her for a time
with a peaceful retreat from 'the wrath of men,' from the resentment of
those who, did they but rightly know their own interests, would have
smiled upon her, and blessed her. We trust she enjoys, and ever will
enjoy, quietness and assurance of an infinitely higher order--the divine
Master, whom she serves and seeks to honor; proving to her, in the terms
of his own promise, 'a refuge from the storm, and a covert from the
tempest.' [Enthusiastic cheering.] It may sound strangely, that, when
assembled for the very purpose of denouncing 'property in man,' we
should be putting in our claims for a share of property in woman. So,
however, it is. We claim Mrs. Stowe as ours--[renewed, cheers]--not ours
only, but still ours. She is British and European property as well as
American. She is the property of the whole world of literature and the
whole world of humanity. [Cheers.] Should our transatlantic friends
repudiate the property, they may transfer their share--[laughter and
cheers]--most gladly will we accept the transference."
PROFESSOR STOWE, on rising to reply, was greeted with the most
enthusiastic applause. He said that he appeared in the name of Mrs.
Stowe, and in his own name, for the purpose of cordially thanking the
people of Glasgow for the reception that had been given to them. But he
could not find words to do it. Was it true that all this affectionate
interest was merited? [Cheers.] He could not imagine any book capable of
exciting such expressions of attachment; indeed he was inclined to
believe it had not been written at all--he "'spected it grew."
[Tremendous cheers.] Under the oppression of the fugitive slave law the
book had sprung from the soil ready made. He regretted exceedingly that
in consequence of the state of Mrs. Stowe's health, and in consequence
of the great pressure of engagements on himself, their stay in this
country would be necessarily short. But he hoped they would accept of
the expression of thanks they offered, and their apology for not being
in a condition to meet their kindness as they would desire. When they
were about to set out from Andover, a friend of theirs expressed his
astonishment that they should enter upon such a journey in the delicate
state of Mrs. Stowe's health. The Scotch people, he doubted not, would
be kind to them--_they would kill them with kindness_; and he feared it
would be so. It was from Glasgow the idea of the invitation they had
received had originated; and well might it originate in that city, for
when had been the time that Glasgow was not in earnest on the subject of
freedom? They had had hard struggles for liberty, and they had been
successful, and the people in the United States were now struggling for
the same privilege. But they labored under circumstances greatly
different from those in Great Britain. Scotland had ever been
distinguished for its love of freedom. [Great applause.] The religious
denominations in the United States--to a great extent, give few and
feeble expressions of disapprobation against the system of slavery. Two
denominations had never been silent--the Old Scotch Seceders, or
Covenanters, and the disciples of William Penn--not one of their number,
in the United States, owns a slave. Not one can own a slave without
being ejected from the society.[A] In fact, the general feeling was
against slavery; but to avoid trouble, the people hesitate to give
publicity to their feelings. Were this done, slavery would soon come to
an end. Great sacrifices are sometimes made by slaveholders to get rid
of slavery. He went once to preach in the State of Ohio. He found there
a little log house. Inside was a delicate woman, feeble and with white
hands. She seemed wholly unaccustomed to work. Her husband had the same
appearance of delicacy. They were very poor. How had they come into that
state? They belonged to a slave State, where they had formerly possessed
a little family of slaves. They had felt slavery to be wrong. They set
them free, and with the remainder of their little property tried to get
their living by farming; but like many similar cases, it had been one of
martyrdom. The Professor then proceeded to make some very practical
remarks on the character of the fugitive slave law, after which he said
that the prosperity of Great Britain in a great measure resulted from
the products of slave labor. American cotton was the chief support of
the system. We must, both in Britain and America, get free-grown cotton,
or slavery will not, at least for a long time to come, be abolished.
What he would impress on the minds of Christians was unity in this great
work. Let slaveholders be ever so much opposed to each other on other
topics, they were unanimous in their endeavors to support slavery. But
let the prayers of all Christians and the efforts of all Christians be
united; and the system of oppression would speedily be destroyed
forever.