Hence my rejoicing that a writer has
appeared who will be read and must be felt, and that happen what may
to the transactions of slavery they will no longer be suppressed."
To this letter, of which but an extract has been given, Mrs. Stowe
sent the following reply:--
MY LORD,--It is not with the common pleasure of gratified authorship
that I say how much I am gratified by the receipt of your very kind
communication with regard to my humble efforts in the cause of
humanity. The subject is one so grave, so awful--the success of what I
have written has been so singular and so unexpected--that I can scarce
retain a self-consciousness and am constrained to look upon it all as
the work of a Higher Power, who, when He pleases, can accomplish his
results by the feeblest instruments. I am glad of anything which gives
notoriety to the book, because it is a plea for the dumb and the
helpless! I am glad particularly of notoriety in England because I see
with what daily increasing power England's opinion is to act on this
country. No one can tell but a _native_ born here by what an
infinite complexity of ties, nerves, and ligaments this terrible evil
is bound in one body politic; how the slightest touch upon it causes
even the free States to thrill and shiver, what a terribly corrupting
and tempting power it has upon the conscience and moral sentiment even
of a free community.
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