Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Europe -- Description and travel
"We desire to feel grateful for the measure of success that has crowned
the advocacy of these sound antislavery principles in our own country;
but we cannot but feel, that as regards the continuance of slavery in
America, we have cause for humiliation and shame in the existence of the
melancholy fact that a large proportion of the fruits of the bitter toil
and suffering of the slaves in the western world are used to minister to
the comfort and the luxury of our own population. When this anomaly of a
country's putting down slavery by law on the one hand, and supporting it
by its trade and commerce on the other, will be removed, it is not for
us to predict; but we are conscious that our position is such as should
at least dissipate every sentiment of self-complacency, and make us
feel, both nationally and individually, how deep a responsibility still
rests upon us to wash our own hands of this iniquity, and to seek by
every legitimate means in our power to rid the world of this fearful
institution.
"True Christian philanthropy knows no geographical limits, no
distinctions of race or color; but wherever it sees its fellow-man the
victim of suffering and oppression, it seeks to alleviate his sorrows,
or drops a tear of sympathy over the afflictions which it has not the
power to remove. We cannot but believe that these enlarged and generous
sympathies will be aroused and strengthened in the hearts of thousands
and tens of thousands of all classes who have wept over the touching
pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin. We have marked the rapid progress of its
circulation from circle to circle, and from country to country, with
feelings of thrilling interest; for we trust, by the divine blessing
upon the softening influence and Christian sentiments it breathes, it
will be made the harbinger of a better and brighter day for the
happiness and the harmony of the human family. The facilities for
international intercourse which we now possess, while they rapidly tend
to remove those absurd jealousies which have so long existed between the
nations of the earth, are daily increasing the power of public opinion
in the world at large, which is so well described by one of our leading
statesmen in these forcible words: 'It is quite true, it may be said,
what are opinions against armies? Opinions, if they are founded in truth
and justice, will in the end prevail against the bayonets of infantry,
the fire of artillery, and the charges of cavalry.' Responding most
cordially to these sentiments, we rejoice with thanksgiving to God that
you, whom we now greet and welcome as our dear and honored friend, have
been enabled to exemplify their beauty and their truth; for it is our
firm conviction that the united powers of Europe, with all their
military array, could not accomplish what you have done, through the
medium of public opinion, for the overthrow of American slavery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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