UTC
The Liberator
Unsigned
Boston: 3 March 1854

THE NEBRASKA QUESTION.

  We protest against opposition to Mr. Douglas's scheme being made the hobby horse of Abolitionists here at the North. If it be, we are ready to despair of its final defeat. There are thousands of men at the South who look upon the Nebraska bill in the same light that we do. There are Southern members in both Houses of Congress ready to vote against it. We cannot afford to lose their aid by mixing the question up with the Abolition vagaries and Uncle Tomitudes which have run riot here at the North for the last dozen years, to the infinite disgust of the whole Southern public.

  In the Tribune of Monday these is an 'Appeal to the Women of the free States of America, on the present crisis in our country, by Harriet Beecher Stowe.' In this address, the author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' takes the field against Douglas and his bill. Now, however good may be the intentions of Mrs. Stowe, there is no doubt her effort will make ten supporters of the bill where it unmakes one.

  The author of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and the caricaturist of the South, is not the person whose advice is likely to be heeded at all by those who need it. Her 'sisters in the free States,' unfortunately, will not have the privilege of voting on the question when it comes up in Congress; while perhaps some Southern members, who may see her address, will conclude, that if Uncle Tom Stowe is against the bill, as a matter of course they should be for it. Opposition to the Nebraska measure is strong and almost universal here at the North now. But, strong as it is, it is too weak to outlive for a month the active, open favor of the Stowes, the Theodore Parkers, the Garrisons, the Pillsburys, the Fosters, and the like. Their opposition is harmless, but spare any good measure from the curse of their support!--Troy Whig.