| | | The Hon. Amelia Murray has written a courageous book on | America and Slavery ~~ a book which will give pain to many, | and which was evidently not written without pain to herself; but | every dispassionate reader will see in it the expression of a | truthful mind, sincerely anxious to state neither more nor less | than the conclusions forced upon it by evidence. She may be | wrong, and we do not say she is right ~~ for we are ourselves in | no condition to survey the whole evidence, and from that survey | to form a deliberate judgment. But of this we are assured, that, | right or wrong, her publication is as praiseworthy as it is | fearless; and we consider it but just to five a fair and patient | hearing to an author who deliberately and sincerely takes the | unpopular side of a great public controversy. From Mrs. Stowe, | and from Mr. Carlyle, we have had exaggerations enough to | make any temperate statement welcome. Frantic abolitionists | and cynical slave-advocates retard the causes they would | respectively serve. Slave-holders are not Legrees, nor are | negroes nothing but pumpkin-eaters. | Miss Murray went to America in the summer of 1854. She was | then an abolitionist, although But this hope was no | indication of any partisanship it was simply the suggestion of an | intellect at once kind and sagacious: ~~ | | We quote this sentence because it shows how far Miss Murray | was from going to America with the opinions she expresses | before quitting it. Her book simply consists of the letters written | from time to time, recording the result of her experience, and the | changes her views underwent. The very tone of the letters is | significant of a mind thoroughly English, clear, sagacious, free | from all affectations, and therefore worthy of respect in any | matter of personal testimony. She is not a

“strong-minded” |

woman. She has no theories. She is not sentimental. She | is utterly free from rhetoric. She has no

“bursts”

of | indignation. An accomplished Englishwoman, fond of botany | and the pleasant parts of science, at once kindly and keen in | observation of people, with the tone of one who has lived in the | world, and who has lost in good society all the angles of asperity | without losing her sincerity, Miss Murray seems to us as | trustworthy a witness as could be found, considering the extent | of her opportunities. We lay stress on this point, not only | because we ourselves are, as before stated, in no condition to | offer an authoritative opinion on the leading topic of her work, | but also because the great public, being in precisely the same | position, is alternately swayed by the reports of witnesses | whose very tone is enough to throw suspicion on what they | report. | It is a very complex, a very awful question, this of Slavery; but | few orators and writers keep distinctly in mind the fact that it is a | question with two aspects. It is abstract, and belongs to simple | speculative philosophy, when we ask, Is Slavery in itself moral? | It is concrete, and excessively complex, when we ask, Is | Slavery a social evil, remediable by legislative interference? The | answer to the abstract question will be almost universally | negative. There are, indeed, philosophers who proclaim Might to | be Right ~~ who believe with Aristotle, that he who is a slave | deserves to be one, and that organic inferiority condemns races | and individuals to servitude. But the generality of philosophical | thinkers, even among slaveholders, would admit that Slavery, in | the abstract, is an evil. In this lies the strength of the abolitionist | argument; for the particular cases of cruelty adduced are easily | set aside on the ground of their being exceptions. Abolitionists | bring forward philosophy and Christianity, as if their opponents | denied the abstract proposition. But the real problem lies | elsewhere ~~ in the concrete political fact. If all our abstract | arguments are to be carried into legislative acts, sad work will | be made of the body politic. Think of the Socialist arguments! | Think of the Republican axioms! Think of some of the simple | maxims of Christianity, which are daily found to be impossible in | our present condition! | We are not writing an essay, and must forbear from developing | the position here indicated. Enough if, having hinted that the |

“high priori road”

is not the true path of | transit for this Slavery question, we return to Miss Murray, who | grapples with Slavery as it exists, and undertakes to show us | how it works. Some of her arguments may be shattered without | much difficulty, but her facts are at all events entitled to attention. | We have seen her first statement of opinion ~~ now let us hear | her when she is somewhat shaken in her old belief: ~~ | | Miss Murray quotes from a defence of Slavery the familiar | question: ~~

“If the negro is happier here than in his own | land, can we say that Slavery is an evil to him? Slaves and | masters do not quarrel with their circumstances; is it not hard | that the stranger should interfere to make both discontented?” |

In her view of the case, the whole discussion turns on the | point whether the negro is, or is not, happier as a slave. | Uncle Tom shrieks a negative; but our authoress agrees | with those travellers who point to the condition of the negro in | his native land and in freedom, compared with that of the negro | in slavery: ~~ | | Miss Murray regards the negroes as organically an inferior race, | incapable of self-government, and fit only to be governed. | Probably without having read Aristotle, she utters the sentiment | of the author of the Politics. She boldly says: ~~ | And elsewhere: ~~ This familiarity with the | designs of the Creator, although to be met with in numberless | books and speeches, is scarcely what we should have expected | from a writer like Miss Murray; and, used as the basis of an | argument for slavery, it will lay her open to just criticism. | Somewhat more to her purpose are certain facts which she | noticed, e.g. :~~ | | Or what she heard in the prattle of a black servant: ~~ | She also quotes the following opinion from Bishop Elliott, with | reference to the general condition of the slaves: ~~ | This last citation, however, though it is intended to tell in favour | of slavery as a temporary benefit, and not wholly an evil, also | tells against the assumed non-educability of the negro race. But | our present object is not to argue the question either on one | side or on the other, but simply to draw attention to the | statements on which Miss Murray grounds the conclusion that | slavery in the United States, with all its evils, is, on the whole, | beneficial ~~ the good largely preponderating, although there is | much to be said of the evil. Dispassionate readers may see | reason to dissent from her conclusions, but it will, at all events, | be perceived that they are not developed out of abstract | argument or high-flown rhetoric ~~ they are the result of actual | inspection. As she says: ~~ | Our remarks on slavery have extended so far that we have not | been able to say a word about the other subjects treated by | Miss Murray in these Letters; but we may take an | opportunity of recurring to the work, and treating it simply as a | book of travel, without further reference to the grave political | and social question to which we have a present confined our | attention.