Indiana State Sentinel

A correspondent in the Journal, who takes exceptions to our views on slavery, asks, "was not William J. Brown born in South Carolina?" This is an important question and for the edification of the Journal's correspondent, we, and all others who may feel interested in knowing the land of our nativity, we state that we were born in the State of Kentucky, and not South Carolina. We like the State of our nativity and are always proud to allude to it, but we should have considered it no disgrace had it been our fortune to have first opened our eyes in the land of Marion and Sumter. As to our views on slavery they are well known.

It is, however, a little strange to hear ministers of the gospel from the pulpit inveighing against works of fiction, novels, and light literature, and at the same time recommending Uncle Tom's Cabin to their hearers. Uncle Tom's Cabin is not a true history of slavery as it exists, and the ministers who recommend it as a good book, recommend a lie. We fully concur with those who assail all this trashy yellow and red covered literature as prejudicial to the youthful mind. We think it equally injurious to arouse the passions and prejudices of the northern people, by misrepresenting and discoloring the institutions of our neighbors. It is slandering them by false statements, and is calculated to engender angry feelings, and alienate different portions of our glorious union. It is pregnant with evil without any corresponding good.

We believe it is just as sinful to hear Sontag sing, or Ole Bull fiddle in a church, as to listen to the same performance in a Theater. Just so with works of romance and fiction. They are the same whether recommended by the booksellers, the pedlar on steam boats, or the ministers in the pulpit.