Page:A letter on "Uncle Tom's cabin" (1852).djvu/20

16 of the abetters too), their minds being once opened by divine power to the iniquity of such proceedings, would have been an agony dreadful to behold. No, let your defenders of slavery say that those whose cause they advocate will have their institution maintained just as it is, that they will fight for it, die for it, and, in truth, that nothing will induce them to give up their property. But do not let them put their case as one to be argued religiously; for the religions of nearly all nations will condemn them. American slavery will find no substantial countenance from Vedas, Korans, Bibles, or any other religious book which has been believed by any large number of civilized or enlightened people, and which has had the seal set upon its moral merits by the common sense of great bodies of mankind.

But you will say, "What does all this lead to, my good friend? You have maintained that the evils of slavery are not exaggerated in this book, that American slavery is not justified by the Bible, and that the English laborer bears no resemblance whatever to the American slave. But what is to be the result, what am I to do in the matter, what are others to do in it?" To this I reply, as I have often replied before to similar questions, it is im-