PREFATORY. THE Work to which this is in reply has called forth already a good many answers in kind,* but none of them, I believe, occupying the ground I have here taken. Throughout the preparation of these Notes, I have kept the promise of my Title Page constantly in view, and have endeavoured to fulfil it; how successfully, must be left to others to determine. For myself, I can only say that, so far as the logic of the work is concerned, I can see no flaw in it. As to the style, should any be disposed to censure in it an occasional departure from the gravity they might think befitting such a theme, my answer is, That in this I have but followed the example set me by the author of the original work, and that her lucubrations and argumentations have, at times, been irresistible provocatives to it. I have throughout endeavoured to treat her with the respect due to a woman, but I confess that I have occasionally found it hard work, especially in the Note on the Key, and where her course in England has come under review. If she would but consider where she stood, and where "the Professors of Lane Seminary" stood, twenty years ago, (and if she cannot remember so far back, Mr. Stanton and his fellowstudents could give her memory a jog,) she would be more chary of her reflections upon others who stand where she stood thenwhere they have always stood, and who are, therefore, probably, * Among these is one entitled, "The Planter: or, Thirteen Years in the South. By a Northern Man. Philadelphia, H. Hooker & Co.,” which, I am surprised to learn, has had, as yet, a comparatively limited circulation. It is one of the most readable books I have met with on the subject. 4* A (v) as good as she, seeing they have had the grace to preserve their consistency. In the course of the following Notes I have had frequent occasion to refer, in no very flattering terms, to a class of Abolition leaders. In this class are not included such men as Charles Sumner and Salmon P. Chase, each of whom, in spite of his position on this subject, is every inch a gentleman. In this class are included such epicene characters as Garrison, Abby Folsom, Theodore Parker, Lucy Stone, Henry C. Wright, Abby Kelly Foster, and, last, not least, Horace Mann, Vir gregis, who, like the bulls of Borrowdale, run mad with their own bellowing." They may be "very estimable characters in private life," for aught I know; some of them, I am told, are: but it is as public characters that I have to do with them, and, as such, feeling no respect for them, I have accordingly expressed none. 66 In conclusion, as I have had to follow the obliquities and sinuosities of the original work, treading in the footsteps and on the heels of my illustrious predecessor," and have, therefore, been unable to make my work a systematic one, I have to request the reader, after going through the Introduction, to turn to pages 110, 111, 122-125, and 139, and read them carefully before commencing the work in course: he will then understand the ground I occupy, and will come, I think, to the conclusion, before he gets through, that it is the only tenable one. PRELIMINARY. A KENTUCKIAN, dining at the Astor House in New York, took up the "Bill of Fare," and began devouring its contents, but falling foul of such jaw-breakers as "Huitres au gratin," "Pâté de foie gras," "Pieds de cochon de lait," &c., &c., he at last gave up in despair, and called out, "Here! waiter! give me some bacon and greens! I'll go back to first principles." If the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had followed the Kentuckian's example, and, when she found herself getting beyond her depth, gone back to first principles, she would have saved herself the trouble of writing the book, and me that of refuting it. To be sure, she might have been some twenty, or thirty, or perhaps fifty thousand dollars poorer for it, but her loss would have been the country's gain. I do not mean merely that the purchasers of the book would have saved their half-dollar, or dollar, or dollar-and-a-half, as the case might be; this would have been a small consideration: they would have saved much more than this; they would have saved themselves so lavish an expenditure of "righteous indignation," and the country a great deal of useless, nay, mischievous excitement. The object of the following "Notes," is to answer a question that has been put to me ad nauseam. During my last summer's annual trip to the North, wherever I went, the first question was, How do you do? and the second, (7) |