And now, Sir, behold a new and heavenly ally. A woman, inspired
by Christian genius, enters the lists, like another Joan of Arc, and
with marvellous power sweeps the popular heart. Now melting to tears,
and now inspiring to rage, her work everywhere touches the conscience,
and makes the Slave-Hunter more hateful. In a brief period, nearly
one hundred thousand copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin have been already
circulated. But this extraordinary and sudden success, surpassing all
other instances in the records of literature, cannot be regarded as but
the triumph of genius. Better far, it is the testimony of the people, by
an unprecedented act, against the Fugitive Slave Bill.
These things I dwell upon as incentives and tokens of an existing public
sentiment, rendering this Act practically inoperative, except as a
tremendous engine of horror. Sir, the sentiment is just. Even in the
lands of Slavery, the slave-trader is loathed as an ignoble character,
from whom the countenance is turned away; and can the Slave-Hunter be
more regarded, while pursuing his prey in a land of Freedom? In early
Europe, in barbarous days, while Slavery prevailed, a Hunting Master
was held in aversion.
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