Page:A letter on "Uncle Tom's cabin" (1852).djvu/31

27 about the moderate evils and anomalies which I have been alluding to. But in the proceedings in slavery there is an excess of evil which really tends to overcome piety, and which all good men should combine against, if it were only to check the murmuring, probably very unwise, but very natural, which will arise with the first thoughts of most men when contemplating such horrors. If we are left alone here on the earth, to do almost what we please with each other, the very awfulness of the situation should breed in men's hearts a profound responsibility. With one voice, spreading round the world like an electric message, mankind should say, "There are things which clearly we are not to do. It cannot be right to sell away an infant from its mother. This must be put a stop to at all hazards. Here is an evil so large and trenchant, that the subtlest casuist would be puzzled to explain it away into beneficence. Let us clear away this doubt of the very destinies of man which springs from the permission only of such monstrosities."

I have now said all I have to say, and more than I ought to ask you to read, about "Uncle Tom's Cabin." If I had the honor of any acquaintance with the authoress, I would send through you my best regards and most earnest