Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 3

[360] ‘Hungarian bonds.’ Already when he was at Memphis, on his voyage down the Mississippi, he had ceased to be the newest excitement of the American people. On March 20, 1852, Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin appeared, to mock the legislatures, statesmen, and parties engaged in¹ affirming the Compromise measures to be ‘final.’ It had previously been published piecemeal in the (Washington) National Era. As a serial, Mr. Garrison passed it by, but he devoured the early bound copy placed in his hands, and gave in the Liberator of March 26 his opinion of the novel that was about to take the world by storm, and —‘party question’ that the subject of it was to Kossuth—would in five years produce three Hungarian translations:

In the execution of her very difficult task, Mrs. Stowe has² displayed rare descriptive powers, a familiar acquaintance with slavery under its best and its worst phases, uncommon moral and philosophical acumen, great facility of thought and expression, feelings and emotions of the strongest character. Intimate as we have been, for a score of years, with the features and operations of the slave system, and often as we have listened to the recitals of its horrors from the lips of the poor hunted fugitives, we confess to the frequent moistening of our eyes, and the making of our heart grow liquid as water, and the trembling of every nerve within us, in the perusal of the incidents and scenes so vividly depicted in her pages. The effect of such a work upon all intelligent and humane minds coming in contact with it, and especially upon the rising generation in its plastic condition, to awaken the strongest compassion for the oppressed and the utmost abhorrence of the system which grinds them to the dust, cannot be estimated: it must be prodigious, and therefore eminently serviceable in the tremendous conflict now waged for the immediate and entire suppression of slavery on the American soil.

The appalling liabilities which constantly impend over such slaves as have “ kind and indulgent masters,” are thrillingly illustrated in various personal narratives; especially in that of “Uncle Tom,” over whose fate every reader will drop the scalding tear, and for whose character the highest reverence will be felt. No insult, no outrage, no suffering, could ruffle the Christlike meekness of his spirit, or shake the steadfastness of