Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin [pp. 214-254]

Stowe's Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin.
evilly disposed on all hands, as the history of Puritanism in
New-England sufficiently establishes. We deny the existence of anything like a parallel in the case of the two peoples.
But, in this history of Legree, Mrs. Stowe betrays a malignity so remarkable that the petticoat lifts of itself, and we
see the hoof of the beast under the table. The nlame given
to this monster Legree is virtually that of one of the first
families of the South. It is, as written, the same with Legare, as pronounced throughout the country. This name has
always been highly honoured among us. Hugh Legare, one
of our very first scholars, was Attorney-General of the United
States, and, if we recollect rightly, acting Secretary of State
w-hen he died-died prematurely, to the great regret and loss
of the country. The name is not only thus appropriated to
a distinguished family, but it is a peculiar one. It does lot
belong to New-England. It is probably not to be found anywhere in that country. In the South, the Legares (Legrees)
are all planters. Here, then, is the exhibition of a wantonness, from which, unless it was designed by the author to
bring home her charges against this family especially, she
should have saved herself from all suspicion. An author of
fiction has some heed to these matters, however seemingly
insignificant. He will take care that his villains are not
confounded with such real names in the country, as will
prompt the malevolent to couple the substantive man, and
his imaginary namesake; or, if he employs a common name,
it will be one so common, that, in common parlance, it shall
almost cease to be a name at all,-as is the case with the
Smiths and Thompsons, and others of the sort, which people
only recognize as burdensome appendages to the christianly
denominations, of Dick, Tom, and Peter, such as the parties
received at the sacred font.
But to proceed to other points. This malignant mood of
Mrs. Stowe very frequently, throughout her books, prompts
her to inflict a sting upon the people of her own precincts
who have been too christian to be philanthropic, and who
have not sufficiently sympathized with her in the crusade
against the South. For all that class of Yankees who think
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