I could see
that she was frailer than before and might never be strong again. Our
boy Reverdy was not robust. And the winter was coming on. At the same
time Dorothy did not wish to return to Washington. She wanted to hear no
more of politics. I had to select her books for her, something that
soothed her, led her into dreams. _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ was now appearing
in serial form. I was reading it with great amusement. But I dared not
show it to Dorothy. I had heard Beecher and knew his sentimental
attitude. This book had for me the same quality. Yet it helped me to
pass many hours while watching by Dorothy's side. Somehow I felt that it
would produce a storm akin to the religious psychology which was
sweeping the country. Critics were already noting its moral effect. Mrs.
Stowe was hailed by Sumner as a "Christian genius," a Joan of Arc.
Garrison said that it would make two million abolitionists. In Paris it
was compared to Dumas' _The Three Guardsmen_ as a popular _tour de
force_. Others detected in it a resemblance to Rousseau's _Nouvelle
Heloise_. One pleaded for the liberty of the slave, the other for the
rights of the peasant. But I knew that the book was not really true. It
forefronted the brutality of slavery, it minimized the benevolent
aspects of the institution, which I had myself seen.
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