Page:A letter on "Uncle Tom's cabin" (1852).djvu/9

5 of the New World, and under nations differing very much from one another, for me to be able to comfort myself in this way. In truth, unless by some special providence planters were imbued with angelic nature, of which there is at present no evidence before us, I cannot see how the state of things can be much otherwise than as it is described to be in this fearful book, which seems to have set all America again thinking about slavery. I have seen something of what is called "the world," and have a large acquaintance with men in all classes of life, from the highest to the lowest, in this country; and I think I know about five persons who might be intrusted with the supreme authority over their fellow-creatures which is given by law to the slaveholder, indiscriminately, in many a slave state.

It has always surprised me that any body should wish to have that power. There is a converse to every thing. Power implies responsibility; and I must say that innumerable cubic feet of collected dollars would scarcely reconcile me to the possession of supreme power over the health, wealth, education, and social duties of several hundred human beings completely committed to my charge. Very few of us are sane enough to be intrusted with such power; and, indeed, in