North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-08-09
TIE ANGL.o=sAxoN RACE.

THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE.
Fifty-three millions Two centuries ago mere
were not quite three millions of this race on tie .ae.
of the earth There million more PERSONS y y
the Maqyr descent, speaking the Macy fld"sudse a
The nresent moment in Europe, than there were II
Europe and America of this conquerns anu coion;H
ing people in the time OF Crom"o'I' 10" s" nt
then, for to talk of the PollGca' hecessV A.,
,-sorhino- small races! Sixty years ago the Anglo
Son race Aid not exceed 100000 in Europe ana
America At that time it was not numerically S,ion
er than the Poles Thirty years ago 1t couhleu
tbirty-four millions being altogether only l'tI NJ
and fraction more than the population OF rance
at that time and considerably less than tie ieutonc
nonuIation of Central Europe. In 1881 II is aneao
If every civilized race in the world VI races Tying
Thin the zones of civilization, the Sclaves alone
are more numerous, counted by heads; but comParI'
lively few of this plastic and submissive stock nave
vet escaped from the baTbarism OF the oalN ages In
wealth. energy, and cultivation, they are not to be
compared with the Frank, the Ieuton and the Anglo
Saxon. Number is almost their only element o.
strength, Of the which are now striving foT
the mastery of the world-to impress on The future
of society and civilization the stamp of its char
acter and genius-to make its law, ldom, religion.
manners, government, and opinion preVall-the Anglo
Saxon is now uuquestlonably the most numerous,
powerful, and active. The day when 1t might pos
sbly have been crushed, absorbed, trampled out,
like Hungary and Poland, by stronger hordes, gone
by forever. That it possible at time tor this
people to be subdued by violence TO fall prey 10
the slower agonies of decline, there be bat little
doubt. In 1850, the United Provinces seemed more
likely TO make a grand figure in the "oria lutuiI
history than England. Their wealth. actVity' anu
maritime power were The most imposing IN F1uloPe'
Thew had all the trade of the west IN their
hands. Then language was spoken in every port
In the great Orient their empire was liked ard
their influence paramount Eng land was then hard
lv known abroad Her difficult diom grated on for
eqn ears and uer stormy repealed the curiosi-
ty of cultivated travellers. Had the thought OF
a day arriving when any single European language
would be spoken by millions of persons, scattered
over he nj from
land to the Hebrides, and from the Cape OF Storms
to the Arctic ocean, occurred TO any speculative mlnd
Dutch, not English, would probably have been the
tongue to which he would have assigned the marvel
lous mission Yet Holland has fallen nearly as much
the Saxon has riser in the scale OF nations. Her
idiom is acquired by few. Her merchants con-
duct their correspondence and transact heir business
in French in English. Even her writers have ma
ny OF them clothed their genius in foreign garb. On
the ether hand, our lite nature and language have
passed entirely out of this phase of danger Dutch,
like Welsh Flemish, Erse, Balque, and other ldoms,
is doomed to perish intellectual medium; but,
whatever may be the future changes of the world,
the tongue of Shakespeare and of Bacon is now too
firmly rooted ever TO be torn away. No longer con-
tent with preservation, it aims at universal
mastery. Gradually it is taking possession OF all the
ports and coasts of the world isoIang all rival idi-
constituting them up from intercourse with each
other-makng itself the channel of every communI-
cation.
At hundred points at once it plays the aggressor.
1t contends with Spanish the frontiers of Next
co-driyes French and Russian before it in Canada |
and in the northern neutrality-suspicious. Dutch
at the Cape and Naal-elbows Greek and lnilan at
Malta and in the Ionian Islands-usurTs the right OF
Arabic at Suez and Observation-Disclosures itself su-
preme at Liberia, Hong Kong, Jamaica, and ST.
Helcna-6ghts its way against muliltudnous and va
rious dialects in the Rocky maintains, in Central
America, the Gold Coast in the interior OF Aus .
traa, and among the countless islands Of the eastern
seas. No other language is spreading in this way.
French and German find students among cultivated |
men; but English permanently destroys and super
sedes the idiom with which ii comes in contact.
The relative growth of the two great Anglo-Saxon
States is noteworthy. In 1901, the population OF
Great Britain 1O,9l2,6I6; in 1900, that of the
United States was 5,3l9, 762-or not quite half. In
1850, the population of the United States is two mil
lions and third more than that of Great Britain in
lS5l-at this moment it probably exceeds it by three
millions. The rate of decenna increase in this
try is less than fifteen per cent-whe in America il
is about thirtyfve per cent In the great continental
States the rate is considerably lower than in Eng land.
According to to the progress of the last fifty years in
France and in America, the United States will have
the larger population in l870-in 1900. they will
coed those of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Den
mark, Sweden, and Switzerland combined. Prudent
statesmen should bear these facts in mind. Many
persons now alive may the time when America |
Will be of more importance ID us, socially, CONNER
clay, and politically, than all Europe put together.
Old diplomatic traditions will 20 for little in the face
OF transatlantic power numbering 10000 900 of
free and energetic men of our race and blood.
l. ndo Il, Ell