NATURAL RELATIONS AND NORMAL CONDITION OF THE NEGRO.
There are now between four and five millions of negroes in the United
States. They or their descendants must remain forever—for good or
evil—an element of our population. What are their natural relations to
the whites?—what their normal condition?
The Almighty has obviously designed all His creatures—animal as well as
human—for wise, beneficent, and useful purposes. In our ignorance of the
animal world, we have only domesticated or applied to useful purposes a
very small number, the horse, the ox, ass, dog, etc.; but these we
practically understand, so that even the most ignorant will not abuse
them or violate their instincts. The most ignorant farmer or laborer
would never attempt to force the dog to perform the domestic _rôle_ of
the cat, or the ox that of the horse, or the sheep that of the ass, etc.
He knows the natures of these animals—their relations to himself and to
each other, and governs them accordingly.
The natural relations of parent and offspring, of brothers and sisters,
of husbands and wives, are also measurably understood by the most
ignorant, for natural instinct quite as much, as reason guides us in
these things. The father knows that the child should obey him, and the
latter feels instinctively that this obedience is a sacred duty. The
same instinct prompts the brother to love his sister, and it may be said
that all the relations of consanguinity, and the duties that spring from
them, are regulated more by instinct than by reason. There are
innumerable books written on this subject, to teach the duties of
parents and offspring, husbands and wives, etc., but with a proper
cultivation of the intellect and of the affections, just perceptions of
the duties involved follow intuitively.
Passing beyond these domestic and family relations—the relations of
individuals—of one man to another, and to the State or general
citizenship, are less understood, for here nature must be led by reason,
and though there are certain great and fixed facts that serve as
landmarks for our guidance, we must mainly rely upon our reason.
It is true, Christianity indicated these relations two thousand years
ago; nevertheless, they are almost totally disregarded in the Old World;
but though too often misunderstood and misapplied among ourselves, they
are sufficiently comprehended to constitute the foundation of our social
order.
Another advance, and we arrive at the relations of races—of white men
and negroes—and of other races that may chance to be in juxtaposition,
and of which the whole world may be said to be profoundly ignorant in
theory, while one-half of our people have justly and truly solved them
in practice. The social order of the South—the social and legal _status_
of the negro—reposes on the natural relations of the white and black
races, and, as has been observed, while the world is ignorant of these
relations, the people of the South, indeed it may be said the American
people, have practically solved them, and to the mutual benefit of all
concerned. But before we can enter on a discussion of the natural
relations and social adaptations of races, we must first clearly
understand the relations that we bear to each other as individuals, and
to the State or aggregate of individuals.
All the individuals of a species, whether animal or human, of course
have the same faculties, the same wants, in a word, the same
specialties. Occasionally chance—some accident, remote or
immediate—deforms or blights individuals; they may be idiotic, insane,
or otherwise incapable, but these are exceptional cases that do not
disturb the great, fixed, and, unchangeable equality, sameness, or
uniformity of the race. The white or Caucasian race, as has been
observed, varies much more than any other race. There are tall men and
short men, giants and pigmies, blondes and brunettes, red-haired and
black-haired, but the nature remains the same; and if they were all
placed under the same circumstances of climate, government, religion,
etc., all would exhibit the same moral characteristics, and, to a
certain extent, the same physical appearances. This is sufficiently
illustrated among ourselves every day. Almost universally our people
have sprung from the “lower classes” of European society. The coarse
skin, big hands and feet, the broad teeth, pug nose, etc., of the Irish
and German laborer pass away in a generation or two, and their American
offspring have more delicate and classical features than even the most
favored and privileged European aristocracy. Having the same faculties,
the same wants, etc., it is a self-evident truth that they are entitled
to the same rights, the same opportunities, to live out the nature with
which God has endowed them. The Divine Author of Christianity
promulgated this vital truth with great impressiveness. He selected his
disciples from the lowest and most oppressed classes of the people, and
thundered his most terrible denunciations in the ears of the sacerdotal
aristocracy. The great body of the Jewish people were mere beasts of
burden to their brethren—the priestly oligarchy—which governed the State
and lived in idle luxury on the toil, ignorance, superstition, and
misery of the people. On all occasions these oppressors were denounced,
and the great and everlasting truth that God was no respecter of
persons, and all men equally precious in His sight—even the beggar
Lazarus and the repentent Magdalene—were the daily teachings of Christ.
And there can be no doubt that the persecution and final crucifixion of
the Author of the Christian religion was intended, by the rulers of the
Jews, to crush out the great doctrine of equality, and thus to preserve
their ascendency over the minds and fortunes of the people. The Divine
ordinance—to “do unto others as we would have them do unto us”—is a
complete exposition of our natural relations to each other, and an
indestructible rule of nature as well as a religious obligation. All
men—that is, all who belong to the race or species—having the same
nature and designed by the Creator for the same purposes, the same
rights and the same duties, it is an obvious inference that all human
governments should rest on this great fundamental truth. No man should
be permitted, indeed no man should be base enough to claim privileges
denied to his fellow, or to any class of his fellows, and the same great
principle which Christ ordained should guide His followers in their
personal relations, should be the only legitimate rule in their
political relations. To do unto others as we would have them do to us—to
recognize in all other men the rights we claim for ourselves—to admit
those reciprocal obligations which, in truth, spring from the
necessities of our being—in short, to demand equal rights for ourselves,
and to admit the same rights on the part of our fellows, seems so
obvious, so instinctive, so just, and indeed self-evident, that an
intelligent and just mind wonders how it ever could be otherwise, or
that systems of government can exist in our own enlightened times in
utter contradiction to such simple and self-evident truths. Government,
the State, the aggregate citizenship, based on the great fundamental
truth of equality, becomes a simple, beneficent, and easily understood
institution. It leaves all men where God and nature places them, in
natural relation to each other. Its functions, however complicated the
details, are simply protective, leaving individuals to ascend or descend
in the social scale, just as their industry, cultivation, and moral
worth may be appreciated by their fellow-citizens. It protects one man
from the violence or injustice of another, and the aggregate citizenship
or nation from foreign aggression.
It is a misnomer to speak of government conferring rights; it may (or
the thing called government in other lands may) take away, suppress, or
withhold rights; but rights, as declared by Mr. Jefferson, are inherent
and in fact inseparable from individual existence. God has endowed every
man with the capacity of self-government, and imposed this
self-government as a duty as well as a right. He has given him certain
wants instincts, desires, etc., and endowed him with reason to govern
and guide these things. As a citizen, he of course does not, or can not
surrender any of his natural rights or control over himself. The State
protects him from wrong or injustice, but himself a portion of the
citizenship, he still governs himself. It is a contradiction to suppose
that one man can govern another better than he can govern himself—that
is, under the same circumstances, and therefore it is palpably absurd to
limit suffrage or to exclude a portion of the people from participation
in the government. All being naturally equal—for though some men may
have more mental capacity than others, as we sometimes see some have
greater physical powers—they have all the same nature; and therefore
govern themselves and fulfill the purposes of their creation when they
all vote at elections and participate in the making of laws. For
purposes of convenience, a limited number of the people are delegated to
conduct the government, but the popular will, the desire of the people,
the rule of the entire citizenship, is complete; every vote tells, every
man’s voice is heard, every one governs himself. And the government,
limited or rather confined to its legitimate function of protection,
leaves every one a complete and boundless liberty to do every thing or
any thing that his instincts, wishes, caprices even, may prompt him to
do, so long as he does not infringe upon the rights, interests, etc., of
others.
Such, then, are the natural relations we bear to each other, and the
social and governmental adaptations that spring from them. The mere
conventional formula may be varied at times—the circle of individual
action contracted or expanded as the public exigencies may demand, but
the right and the duty of every man to an equal participation in the
government, or in the creation of laws which govern all, is vital, and
every man denied this is necessarily a slave, for he is then governed by
the will of others and not by his own, as God and nature have ordained
he should be.
There are no contradictions or discords in nature. All creatures, and
the purposes God has assigned to them, are perfectly harmonious; and all
their relations to each other, and the duties that spring from them, are
in perfect accord. It is our ignorance, and sometimes our caprices and
vices, that interrupt this harmony; but it is consoling to know, that
happiness is inseparable from the due fulfilment of our duties, and
therefore the wiser the world becomes, the better it will be. The man
who loves his wife the most will also have the tenderest affection for
his children; those who are most careful to respect the rights of others
will be the most secure in their own rights, and the government, or
state, or nation based on the natural relations that men bear to each
other, will be the most prosperous and powerful.
We are, it is true, at a great distance from the practical or complete
development of our system, but in theory it is right, and most Americans
recognize the truth and justice of its elementary principles. On the
contrary, Europeans, and especially Englishmen, have scarcely a
perception or glimpse of men’s natural relations to each other, and
their whole social and political system, if thus it may be called, is in
direct conflict with these relations, with the vital principle of
democracy, with reason and common sense. A woman is the chief of the
nation, whose husband is her subject—thus violating the relations of the
sexes—of husband and wife—and thrusting her from the normal position of
woman as well as contradicting the relations and duties of citizenship.
God created her, adapted her, and designed her, for a wife and mother, a
help-mate to her husband and the teacher and guide of her children; He
endowed her with corresponding instincts to love, venerate, and obey her
husband and devote her life to the happiness and welfare of her
offspring, and to trample on His laws—to smother these instincts and
force this woman to be a queen, a chief of state, the ruler over
millions of men, is as sinful as it is irrational, as great an outrage
on herself—her womanhood—as it is on the people who suffer from it. The
annual expenditure for royalty amounts to several millions, and requires
probably that some thirty thousand people should be employed or
compelled to devote their labor to this purpose. Thirty thousand men,
women, and children, ignorant, abject, and miserable, with no chance
whatever for education, for the cultivation of their faculties or the
healthy development of their natures, are bound to lives of toil and a
mere animal existence in order to furnish means for this one family, not
of happiness, but of boundless folly, which is supposed to constitute
royal dignity. God created this woman with the same faculties, endowed
her with the same instincts, and designed her for the same purposes as
all other women in England, but the human law, disregarding the evident
designs of the Almighty, has impiously sought to make her a different
and superior being, to reverse the natural relations of the sexes, to
render her husband subject to her will, to place her above many millions
of men, the head of the state, to even force this fragile, weak, and
helpless female to be the commander-in-chief of their armies, and they
crush and pervert thirty thousand other people out of the natural order,
and doom them to a mere animal existence, in order to sustain this one
family in “royal splendor.” The two things are inseparable—the violation
of the natural relation drags after it these frightful consequences. All
these people thus doomed to ignorance and toil, to support the luxury
and grandeur of royalty, would, under the same circumstances, be just as
grand, majestic, and royal as the present royal family, and the wrong in
the present instance may be measured or tested by the consideration that
of these thirty thousand poor, ignorant, abject, and toiling creatures,
whose labor, or the proceeds of whose labor is appropriated to the
support of royalty, the majority would doubtless exhibit more capacity
and refinement than those who rule over them, if, standing where nature
placed them all in common, they were permitted to compete for
superiority. The same unnatural order prevails on the Continent: the
natural equality that God has stamped upon the race—for they are all
white men—is disregarded, and though the people are ignorant, debased by
poverty, excessive toil, and misery, the _status quo_ preserved alone by
force. Nearly four millions of armed men are kept in constant readiness
to repress and keep down the instinct of equality, while a “civil” force
of perhaps a million more is constantly acting in conjunction with the
former, in preserving that artificial and unnatural rule which the few—a
mere fraction of the population—exercise over the many. And so
instinctive and irrepressible is this sentiment—this innate and eternal
law written by the finger of the Almighty on the soul and organism of
the race—that if these armed forces were withdrawn, every government in
Europe would be demolished within a week. Nor can the existing condition
be preserved much longer. Those writers ignorant of the essential nature
of the race, often indulge in absurd fancies in regard to the future of
European society. They are good enough to say that democratic
institutions may do for America, but that they will not suit the people
of Europe, and therefore monarchy is to be a permanent institution.
Democracy or equality is a fact rather than a principle. Beings who have
the same nature, the same wants, and the same instincts will struggle,
as they must struggle, for ever, to enjoy the same rights and to live
out the same life. And though they are chained down by ignorance and
misery as well as by the armed hordes of their tyrants, there can be no
peace, no cessation of the conflict, no stopping-place short of the
universal recognition of their natural relations to each other, and that
fixed and eternal equality which the Almighty Creator has stamped upon
the race and fixed for ever in its physical and mental structure.
If the natural relations that men bear to each other are thus
misunderstood and disregarded in Europe, it may well be supposed that
they are wholly ignorant of the natural relations of races, and without
even the remotest conception of the relations that naturally exist
between white men and negroes. It is therefore a subject never
introduced or treated of—a _terra incognita_ to the European mind,—and
dependent as we are on European authority, the natural relation of
races, and the normal condition of the negro, have only quite recently
become a subject of American investigation.
But while our writers and men of science have been, and quite generally
are even now, wholly ignorant of these relations, indeed, worse still,
in slavish subserviency to European dictation, have accepted the absurd
theories of the former in explanation of the phenomena constantly
presented to their view, our people have practically solved their
natural relations to the inferior race, and placed or rather retained
the negro in his normal condition.
There are eight millions of white people and four millions of negroes in
juxtaposition. The latter are, in domestic subordination and social
adaptation, corresponding with their wants, their instincts, their
faculties, the nature with which God has endowed them. They are
different and subordinate creatures, and they are in a different and
subordinate social position, harmonizing with their natural relations to
the superior race, and therefore they are in their normal condition.
This, if not exactly a self-evident, is certainly an unavoidable truth—a
truth that no amount or extent of sophistry, self-deception,
authoritative dictum, or perverted reasoning can gainsay a moment, for
it rests upon _facts_, fixed forever by the hand of the Creator. The
negro is different from, and inferior to the white man. He is in a
different and inferior position, and therefore, of necessity, is in a
normal condition. _That_, as a general proposition, is true beyond
doubt, for there is no place or material for doubt. God has made him
different—widely different, as has been shown; that difference is as
unchangeable as are any of the works of the Almighty. _He_ has therefore
designed him, of course, for different purposes—for a different and
subordinate social position whenever and wherever the races are in
juxtaposition. It needs no argument to prove this truth, great and
startling as it must be to those who have never before contemplated it.
The _facts_—the simple, palpable, unchangeable facts—only need to be
stated, and the inference, the inductive fact, the absolute truth, is
unavoidable. God has made the negro different from, and inferior to the
white man. They are in juxtaposition—the human law corresponds with the
higher law of the Almighty; the negro is in a different and subordinate
position, and therefore in a normal condition. But it may be said by
some that while this is so, or while the negro, in juxtaposition, must
be subordinate, it does not follow that the actual condition of things
at the South is essentially right, natural, and just. They would be
mistaken, however, for the _facts_ involved do not permit or admit of
any such assertion. The white man _is_ superior, the negro _is_
inferior, and therefore the inference is unavoidable that the latter is
in his normal condition whenever the social law or legal adaptation is
in harmony with these natural relations of white men and negroes. It is
true that a wide field for inquiry, for comparison, for arriving at
relative truth, is here opened to our view, but the simple, precise, and
unavoidable truth remains unaltered and unalterable—the different and
inferior negro is in a different and inferior social position at the
South, and therefore in harmony with the natural relations of the races,
he is in a normal condition. If it were said that the existing condition
were defective—that in some respects injustice were done the negro—that
there was a wide field for improvement in the social habits of the
South—in short, for the progress and improvement of Southern society,
then there would be reason, perhaps, in such suggestions. But to say or
to assert that the condition of the negro at the South was wrong or
unjust in its essential character, would be altogether absurd, and an
abuse of language that none but those wholly ignorant of the facts
involved would ever, or could ever, indulge in. The simple statement of
the facts lying at the base of Southern society, however false our
perceptions of them, or whatever our ignorance of them, or whatever may
be the perversity of those who will not seek to comprehend them, is
sufficient, when clearly presented, to convince every rational mind that
the negro is in his normal condition only when in social subordination
to the white man.
But however obvious or irresistible this momentous truth, when it is
thus forced upon the mind as an inductive fact, it is also demonstrable
through processes of comparison, which, if not quite so direct or
palpable, are equally certain and reliable. And the normal condition of
the negro, or the social adaptation at the South, necessarily involves
the protection as well as the subordination of the inferior race. The
two things are in fact inseparable, as in the case of parents and
children, or the relations of husband and wife, or indeed any condition
of things resting on a basis of natural law.
Any one capable of reasoning at all must see that four millions of
subordinate negroes in juxtaposition with eight millions of superior
white men, must be in a subordinate social position—that the instinct of
self-preservation, the primal law, obviously demands that the superior
shall place the inferior in just such position as its own interests and
safety may need—that it may and should even destroy it, utterly
obliterate it from the earth, if its own safety requires it—though such
instance never could happen unless some outside force or intermeddling
brought it about—that the mode or manner, or special means are of
secondary consideration, and to be determined or worked out according to
circumstances, the habits, progress, and condition of the master race.
Contemplating, therefore, the great existing fact—the juxtaposition of
vast masses of widely different social elements at the South—the
inference is unavoidable, that it is the right and the duty of the
dominant race to provide for the wants of such a population, and that,
for the common welfare and safety, they may and must place the negro
element just where their own reason and experience assure them is proper
and desirable. This has been done, and is done, but instead of the State
or government providing directly for these things, individuals are left,
to a great extent at least, to provide for the wants of the subordinate
race. The motive of personal interest, therefore, is brought into
action—a motive often, doubtless, stronger than affection, and though,
like the latter, it will not always save the weak and dependent from
wrong and cruelty, it usually serves as a sufficient protection. The
father loves his child, the being so inferior, so weak and dependent on
his affection. He has absolute control over the actions, the labor, the
time, habits, etc., of his son, may compel him to labor for him, or hire
out or sell his services to another, and it is only on rare occasions
that this natural affection of the father is not sufficient protection
for the offspring, and the State is compelled to interpose its power to
save the latter from the parent’s cruelty. It is the utmost interest of
the father to treat his offspring with kindness, and though affection is
the dominant feeling, his real interests are always advanced by this
treatment, so that it might be said that the man who loves his children
most will have the most useful and the best children. And in the
relation of husband and wife a similar result necessarily follows: the
husband who loves his wife most tenderly will—other things being
equal—always have the best wife, and the wife who loves her husband and
children most devotedly will be rewarded by the greatest love and the
greatest happiness in return.
In the case of the master and so-called slave, interest instead of
affection is the dominant feeling; but even here they are inseparable as
well as in the relations just referred to. It is the utmost interest of
the master to treat his negro subject with the greatest kindness, and in
exact proportion as he does so, he calls into action the affections of
the latter. Every one who practically understands the negro, knows that
the strongest affection his nature is capable of feeling is love for his
master—that affection for wife, parents, or offspring, all sink into
insignificance in comparison with the strong and devoted love he gives
to the superior being who guides, cares, and provides for all his wants.
There is, then, this radical difference between parent and child, and
master and “slave”—the first, prompted by affection, is rewarded by
interest, while the latter, impelled by interest, is followed by
affection; and the grand result in both cases is happiness, well-being,
the mutual benefit and common welfare of all concerned—that universal
reward which God bestows on all His creatures, when, recognizing their
natural relations to each, they adapt their domestic habits and social
regulations to those relations.
The popular mind of the North, so deplorably ignorant of all the facts
of Southern society, has a general conception, perhaps, of negro
subordination at the South, but none whatever of the reciprocities of
the social condition. The negro—a different and inferior creature—must
be in a social position harmonizing with this great, fundamental, and
unchangeable fact; but while he owes obedience, natural, organic, and
spontaneous, he also has the natural right of protection. Or, in other
words, while he owes obedience to his master, the latter owes him
protection, care, guidance, and provision for all his wants, and he can
not relieve himself of this duty or these duties without damaging
himself. For example: the master who overworked his people, or under-fed
them, or treated them cruelly in any way, would necessarily compromise
his interests to the precise extent that he practiced, or sought to
practice, these cruelties. They would become feeble from over-exertion,
or weak and prostrated from the want of healthy food; while indifference
to the master’s interests, sullenness, perhaps sometimes fierce hate,
would impel them to damage his property, and in any and every case their
labor would be less valuable. Furthermore, God has so adapted the negro
that he can not be overworked; and though the master or overseer may
kill him in the effort, he can not, nor can any human power, force him
beyond a given point, or compel him to that extreme exertion which the
poor white laborer of Europe is often forced into. Subordination and
protection, the obedience of the inferior and the care of the superior,
the subjection of the negro and the guidance of the white man, are
therefore inseparable, and when we outgrow and abandon the mental habits
borrowed from Europe and designate the social condition where these
elements exist, by a proper term or word, it should be a compound one
that embodies both of these things.
Such, then, are the domestic habits and social adaptations at the South,
or where widely different races are in juxtaposition, and which, in
truth, spring from the necessities of social existence whenever they are
found together. But, as already remarked, the truth, essential justice,
beneficence, and necessity of this condition—this subordination on the
one hand and protection on the other—while an obvious, and, indeed,
unavoidable conclusion or inference from the great and unchangeable
facts involved—are equally demonstrable by comparison with other
conditions. Or, in other words, while the mere statement of existing
facts, in their natural order and their true relations, irresistibly and
unavoidably forces the mind to the conclusion that Southern society
reposes on a basis of natural law and everlasting truth, its essential
justice, naturalness, and beneficence may be made equally clear to the
mind by comparing it with other conditions where these elements are
found to exist. We absolutely know nothing of the negro of antiquity
except that recently revealed on the Egyptian monuments, through the
labors of Champolion and others, and possibly a glimpse occasionally of
negro populations through Roman history. The ignorant Abolitionists, and
the scarcely less ignorant European ethnologists, on this subject, fancy
negro empires and grand civilizations long since extinct; and
Livingstone and others, with the false and nonsensical notion that there
should be found remains of these imaginary empires, of course succeeded
in finding them occasionally, or the interests of the “friends of
humanity” would languish, and perhaps subside altogether. But the author
desires to say to the reader that while, as an anatomist, he _knows_
that an isolated civilized negro is just as impossible as a
straight-haired or white-skinned negro, he has also consulted history,
ancient and modern, European and Oriental, Pagan and Christian, and in
the _tout ensemble_ of the experience of mankind there is nothing
written—book, pamphlet, or manuscript—in the world that casts any light
whatever on this matter, or that authorizes the notion that populations,
where the negro element dominated, had a history. Since the great
“anti-slavery” imposture of modern times began, there are many writers
and lecturers who assume such things, as that negro empires had often
existed and exercised vast influences on the progress of mankind—that
the rich and powerful republic of Carthage was negro—that even Hannibal,
the man who so long contested the empire of the world with the grand old
Romans, was a negro—indeed, some of these ignorant and impious people
have assumed that Christ was a negro; but it is repeated, there is no
negro history, nothing whatever, except what we now see on the Egyptian
monuments, that indicate the position of the negro or the condition of
society when in juxtaposition with white men.
As depicted on the monuments, the negro was then as he is now at the
South, in a position of subordination; while isolated, he was as he is
now, a simple, unproductive, non-advancing savage. In this condition of
isolation he multiplies himself, and therefore is in a natural
condition. His acute and powerful senses make amends for his limited
intelligence, and enable him to contend with the fiercer and more
powerful creatures of the animal creation, while the fervid suns and
luxuriant soils of the tropics, where the earth may be said to produce
spontaneously, enable him to live with little more exertion than simply
to gather their rich and nutritious products. It is a natural condition,
so far as it goes, for, as has been said, he increases and multiplies
his kind; but it can not have been designed as the permanent condition
of the race, for that involves the anomaly of waste, uselessness, a
broad blank in the economy of the universe. But as that aspect of the
subject will be discussed in another place, it need not be entered on
here.
The condition of savagism, or whatever we may term it, where the negro
is isolated and without any thing to call his wonderful powers of
imitation into action, where he is simply a useless, non-advancing
heathen, surely no one, however perverted his mind may be on this
subject, will venture to say is a preferable condition to that which he
enjoys at the South. It might suffice to say that he increases with more
than double rapidity, to demonstrate the fact of his superiority of
condition in the latter; but there are moral considerations that show
this with still greater distinctness. It is true that we must not take
our own standard to test this matter, or we must not assume that that
which would constitute our own happiness would also secure the greatest
happiness of the negro. Of course the white man never did and never
could live such a life as the isolated negro; but, contemplating the
negro in the South as he now exists, in comparison with the condition of
the isolated negro in Africa, will any one or can any one doubt for an
instant the immense superiority of the former condition? He is cared for
in his childhood by his master as well as his mother, taken care of when
ill, always supplied with an abundance of food and clothing, given every
chance for the development of his imitative faculties, permitted to
marry generally as he pleases, to feel always that he has a guide and
protector, and a constant, peaceful home; and in his old age will be
cared for and decently buried with all the sanctions and comforts of the
Christian religion. In Africa, a negro, isolated from the white man,
rarely has a home, rarely knows his father, is left unprotected in his
childhood to all the chances and uncertainties of savagism, sometimes
nearly starved, at other times gorged with unwholesome food, without any
possible chance for education or the development of his faculties,
liable at any moment of his life, in some wild eruption of hostile
tribes, to be carried off a slave, perhaps to be eaten by the victors,
and after running the gauntlet of savagism, if he lives to old age, to
be left to perish of hunger, if no longer able to seek food for himself.
But it is quite unnecessary to multiply words on this point; the
condition of the negro in America, under the broad glare of American
civilization and the beneficent influences of Christianity, is so vastly
and indeed immeasurably superior to that of the African or isolated
negro, that we have no terms in our language that can truly or fully
express it. We ourselves, under our beneficent democratic institutions,
doubtless enjoy an extent of happiness or well-being, over that of the
masses of our race in the Old World, somewhat difficult to measure or
express in words, and it is reasonable to say that the negro population
of the South, relatively or comparatively, enjoys even greater
happiness, when contrasted with African savagism. There is, in fact, no
other condition to compare with, for freedom, the imaginary state that
the Abolitionists have labored for so long, is not a condition, and has
an existence in their imaginations alone, and not in the actual
breathing and living world about us. They have a theory, or rather an
abstract idea, that the negro is a _black_-white man, a black Caucasian,
a creature like ourselves except in color, and therefore that, placed
under the same circumstances—that is, given the same rights and held to
the same responsibilities—he will manifest the same qualities, etc. On
this foolish assumption legislatures and individuals have acted, and
both in the South and in the North considerable numbers of these people
have been thrust from their normal condition into what? Why, into the
condition of widely different beings.
If any one were to propose to give the negro straight hair, or a flowing
beard, or transparent color, or to force on him any other physical
feature of the white man, everybody would denounce the wrong as well as
the folly of thus torturing the poor creature with that which nature
forbids to be done. It has been shown that, in the mental qualities and
instincts of the negro, the differences between him and the white man
are exactly measured by the differences in the physical qualities, and
therefore the efforts of the Abolitionists to endow the negro with
freedom involve exactly the same impieties and the same follies as if
they sought to change the color of the skin. Or if it was sought to
force the child to live out the life of the adult—or the woman that of
the man, or to compel our domestic animals to change their
manifestations and to contradict the nature God has given them, it would
be promptly denounced as cruel, impious, and foolish. All that could be
done would be to destroy them—to shorten the life of the unhappy
creatures; and this is exactly what has been done, and is now done, in
regard to negroes; but, owing to a universal ignorance and wide-spread
misconception, that which should be denounced as the grossest wrong has
been regarded as the highest morality and philanthropy!
The negro is thrust from the care and protection of a master at the
South, but he has none of the responsibilities of society laid on him,
and furthermore, there is no very pressing competition for the means of
subsistence. He has nothing of what are called rights—that is, is not
forced to live the life of another being—and though he has no master to
teach and guide him, his powers of imitation are, to a certain extent,
called into action, for he is still in juxtaposition and subordination.
But even under these favorable circumstances, he rapidly—as contrasted
with those under the care of masters—declines and dies. There is, at
this time, a large number of these people in Maryland, Virginia and
other transition States. Their condition is truly deplorable, and is
every day getting worse, for the increase of whites is every day adding
to the pressure on them, and rendering the means of subsistence more
difficult to obtain. It seems to many, doubtless, a great wrong to place
them again in a normal condition, and true relation to the whites—which
would be a wrong like that of the inebriate forced back into
temperance—a process, in truth, of great suffering, but desirable in the
end. If the abnormal habit of drunkenness continues, the man will die
within a given time; but if he reforms and recovers his normal state, he
may live many years.
There will be few, if any, more negroes “emancipated,” as forcing them
out of a normal condition has been termed, in the South, and therefore
it is only a question of time when these people, left as they are now,
will become extinct. As a question of kindness and humanity, therefore,
it is like that of the drunkard: left as they are, they must perish; but
if restored to a normal state, whatever their temporary suffering, they
or their descendants may live forever. Most unfortunately, however,
there is another difficulty involved in the fortunes of these poor
people. They have a large infusion of white blood—a very large portion,
perhaps, are mulattoes, and therefore while in the case of the typical
negro there could be no doubt where true humanity pointed us, in the
case of these mongrels there is room for doubt and difficulty. But in
the more Northern States, where it is sought to force the habitudes of
white men on them, they perish rapidly. The mortality is greater in New
England than in the Middle States, and greatest of all in Massachusetts
where they are citizens, and the ignorant and misguided, however
well-meaning, “friends of freedom” have their own way, and give full
scope to their terrible kindness. The whole subject may be summed up
thus:—The negro, in a normal condition, increases more rapidly than the
whites—for the negress, if not more prolific, escapes by her lower
sensibility the numerous chances of miscarriage, premature births,
weakly children, etc., which ordinarily attend on the higher and more
susceptible organization of the white female.
The “free” or abnormal negro of the Southern States tends to
extinction—of the Middle States still more rapidly—and finally, most
rapidly of all in New England. Or the actual laws governing this matter
may be summed up thus:—In precise proportion as the negro is thrust from
his normal condition into that of the white man, he tends to extinction,
or one might say, that precisely as the rights of the white man are
forced on the negro, he is destroyed. All the negroes brought to this
continent were in a normal condition. The monstrous assumption set up by
British writers when the colonists began to throw off the British
dominion, that negroes were _black_-white men, and, naturally
considered, entitled to the same _status_, after nearly a hundred years,
and an amount of wrong, falsehood, and suffering to these people that is
beyond computation, has at last culminated. From this time forth, few,
if any, will be “emancipated.” Indeed, it is far more likely that the
numbers restored to a normal condition will outnumber those thrust from
their natural relations to white men. If all the legislation on the
subject were suddenly blotted out, of course there would be no such
thing as a “free negro” on this continent, and this is the point towards
which the course of American society is now rapidly tending. It may be
somewhat difficult to determine that period—for we know not what may be
the action of many of the States that have a considerable population of
this kind—but one can not err when saying that it can not be remote, and
it is absolutely certain to arrive within the next hundred years.
Indeed, it is most probable that from the culmination of the great
“anti-slavery” imposture, or from the starting-point of the reaction, to
the final period when such a social monstrosity as a “free” negro will
be entirely extinct in the New World, the interval will be less than
that of the strange and wide-spread delusion which has so long run riot
over the understanding, the common sense, the interests, and
self-respect of our people.
Of course, no comparison proper can be made with so shadowy and
intangible a thing as this. It is not a condition—it is only an attempt
after that which neither has nor can have an existence. If it had been
assumed simply that the _status_ of the negro was wrong at the South,
and that some other _status_ was proper for him, then possibly an
experiment would have been legitimate. But, as it was assumed that the
negro was a Caucasian, whose color merely was different, and naturally
entitled to the position of the white man, all these efforts were made
to reduce the assumption to practice, and compel him to live out the
life of the former. There could be and can be only a single end to such
effort. God created him a negro, a different and inferior being, and of
course no human power could alter or modify, to the millionth part of an
atom, the work of the Eternal. That which destroys a creature, or under
which he dies, can never be right, or even approach to that which is
right. When nature is so outraged that she refuses to indorse the human
action, or when she in mercy interposes her power to limit such action,
then we can not possibly mistake the wrong we are doing, or attempting
to do. It is an historical fact that slaves never propagated while in
that condition, and the supply was constantly kept up by fresh wars and
increased captives. It was such a stupendous outrage on the natural
relations, that men of the same species bear to each other, or on that
natural and unchangeable equality common to the race, that nature
refused to propagate it, or to consent to its permanent existence.
Nature also refuses offspring to prostitution—that terrible cancer so
corrupting to Northern society, and who does not see her wisdom and
beneficence in thus refusing a permanent existence to so foul a blot on
the sexual relations? So, too, in the case of mulattoism, where a
monstrous violation of the physical integrity of the races is involved,
nature interposes and forbids it to live. And in incest—the violation of
the laws of consanguinity, where relatives intermarry—nature
appropriately punishes them, through the idiocy and impotency of their
offspring, which is always forbidden to exist beyond a determinate
period. Free negroism, therefore—the attempt to force a different and
inferior being to live out the life of a different and superior being—is
not a condition, and can not be compared with that which is, or that
which the higher law of nature grants, a fixed order of life. There are,
then, only two possible conditions for the negro—isolation or
juxtaposition with the white man—African heathenism or subordination to
a master—a blank in the economy of the universe, or the social order of
the South, where he is an important element in the civilization,
progress, and general welfare of both races. It is not in the scope of
this work to treat of the natural relations or social adaptations of
other races. They must be determined by experience, though the
starting-point—the fundamental truth—that when in juxtaposition they
must occupy a subordinate social position, corresponding with the degree
of inferiority to the white man, may be said to be self-evident, or, at
all events, an unavoidable truth.
In conclusion, it may be well to repeat the great leading truths that
underlie the subject discussed in this chapter.
All of God’s creatures, animal as well as human, have a right to live
out the life—the specific nature—that He has endowed them with, and we
have comprehended this great, vital, and fundamental law in respect to
our domestic animals, and generally conform to it. The natural relations
of the sexes—of parents and offspring—are also understood, and generally
lived up to in our daily life. The natural relations of men to each
other are less understood, but the natural order, the equality of
rights, and equality of duties, based on an equality of wants, is a
vital principle of Christianity, and however far we may be from living
it out in practice, our political system, and the whole superstructure
of our civil and legal institutions, repose upon this fundamental law of
nature.
This natural order is generally disregarded in the Old World, though
even there, with all their numerous false traditions, relics of
barbarism, and ancient wrongs, as well as modern corruptions, they are
forced, to a certain extent, in their legal and civil institutions, to
recognize it. Nature absolutely forbids any change or any violation of
her laws, or, in other words, the work of the Almighty can not be
altered by human force or accident. The millions of Europe are,
therefore, unchanged in their essential natures, and the few who rule
and wrong them are only able to prevent the development of their
specific and latent capabilities by their systems of repression. But the
natural order—the natural relations they bear to each other—the inherent
and eternal equality that God has stamped forever on the organism of the
race, is perpetually struggling to manifest itself; and though buried in
a profound animalism, though deluded by false theories and corrupted by
innumerable lies, and steeped in poverty and misery fathomless and
measureless, they are only temporarily kept from asserting the natural
order and specific nature of the race by four millions of bayonets.
The natural relations of races, and especially of the white man and
negro, have been wholly misunderstood, for, ignorant of the nature and
specific wants of the negro, it necessarily followed that it should be
so. But while in theory we have been ignorant of these relations, the
people of the South have solved them in practice. Their actual
experience of the negro nature, of its wants, its capacities, its
industrial adaptations, perhaps we may say, the instinctive necessities
of a society where widely different social elements are in
juxtaposition, have developed a social order in practical harmony with
the best interests and highest happiness of both races. That society
rests on the same basis as that of the North, with the superadded negro
element, which, in social subordination corresponding with its natural
inferiority and natural relations to the white man, is immovable and
everlasting, so long as the foundations of the world remain unaltered
and unalterable. Ignorance and impiety may beat against it; folly,
delusion, and madness may waste their wild energies in blind warfare on
it; European kings and nobles, all those who live and flourish for a
time on the perversion of the natural order and the degradation of so
many millions of their kind—their natural equals—may combine to
overthrow it; dupes, instruments, open foes and secret traitors may aid
them, and the great ignorant and deluded masses for a time may be
blindly impelled in this direction, but all in vain; the social
order—the supremacy of the master and the obedience of the “slave”—will
remain forever, for it is based on the higher law of the Almighty, the
natural relations of the races, the organic and eternal superiority of
the white man and the organic and everlasting inferiority of the negro.