Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-02-09

tons fitted out under the auspices of powerful as
sociations, and powerful governments, have ended
IN The most calamitous failure; and it has been
proved at last, by all this experience, that the
white race Of itself, cannot civilize Africa.
Sir, when that most noble expedition, think in
lS4l was fitted out, under the highest auspices in
England, to found an agricultural colony at the
contiuence OF the Niger and the Chad, out of one
hundred and fittywhite persons that formed part
oil IT, every man sickened, and all but three or four
died. On the other hand, out of one hundred and
nifty colored men, that formed part of the expedi
ton, only three or four sickened, and they were
men who had passed some years in the Wesi Indies.
and IN Europe, and not one died. think that fa CT
IN reference to the civilization of Africa is worth
had almost said all the treasure, and all the suf-
lering OF that ill fated expedition.
Sr,!yo cannot civilize Africa,-you Caucasian
| you proud white man-you al-boasting, all-dar-
ing Anglo Saxon, you cannot do this work. You
have subjugated Europe; the native races of this
| country are melting before you as the untimely
SHOWS of April beneath vernal sun; you have
possessed Yourselves of India, you threaten China
and Jaran; the farthest isles of the Pacific are
mol distant enough to escape your grasp, or insig
nlhcant enough to elude your notice: but this
great Central Africa lies at your doors and defies
your power. Your war steamers and your squad
rons may range along the coast but neither on the
brands of peace nor on the errands of war, can
You penetrate into and long keep the interior The
God of nature, for purposes inscrutable, but no
doubt to be reconciled with His wisdom and good
ness, has drawn Gordon across the chief in cts
| that you cannot pass You may hover on the coast,
but woe to you if you attempt 70. make perma-
| nent Judgment in the interior. Their poor mud
built villages will oppose no resistance to Your
arms; but death sits porteress at their undefended
gates Yellow feyers, and blue plaques, and inter-
mittent polsons that you can see as well as feel,
| hover in the air. If you attempt to go up the
| rivers pestllence shoots from the mangroyes that
fringe their noble banks; and the allglorous sun,
that kindles everything else into life and power,
darts down disease and death into your languid
n M nnln hIo
your vocation. You may direct the way, you may
survey the coast, you may point your finger into
the interior; but you must leave it to others to 20
and abide there. The God of nature, in another
branch of his family, has chosen out the insru
| men,s of this great work-descendants of the
torrd cline, children of the burning vertical sun
land fitted them bycenturies of stern discipline
Tor this most noble work.
From foreign realms and lands remote,
They past unharmed through burning clime.,
And breathe the tainted air.
! Sir, believe that Africa will be civilized. and
civilized by the descendants of those who were
torn from the lan,i. 1 believe it because ! will
not think that this great fertile continent is to be
forever left waste. [ believe it because see no
other agency fully competent to the work. l be-
lleyc it because see in this agency most wonder
full adaptation. = ~ y y 80
But doubts are entertained of the practicabili.y
OF ehectng this object by the insrumentality that
have Indicated. They are founded in the first
place, OH the supposed ncapacy of the free color
ed population of this country and the Wts Indies
TO take up and carry on SUCH work; and also on
the supposed degradation and, il Imay use such
word, unimprovability OF the native African races
which is presumed to be SO great as to bid defiance
| to any such operation. ,t ....f s....'
| Now, think it would be very unjust to the
colored population of this country anu the West
| lnies tU argue from what they have done under
present circumstances, 70 what they might effect
under the most avoroble circunist noes ~ think
upon the whole all things considered. that they
have done quite as well as could be expected; tnat
shey have done as well as persons Of European or
Anglo american origin would have. done after
three centuries OF similar depression and hardship
You will Iecollcct, sir, that Mr.. Jefferson in his
valuable work called "The Notes on Virginia.
states IN strong language the intellectual nferiori-
| ~ oil the collored race. l have always thought
that it ought to have led Mr.. Jefferson to hesitate
little as to the accuracy of this opinion, when he
fecoilected that IN the very same work he was
| Obliged to defend the Anglo American race 10
which he himself, and to which SO many of us be-
long, against the very same mputaton brought by
an ingenious French writer, the Able Raynal
whose Opinions were shared by all the school OF
philosophers to which he belonged. Why, it is
but very few years-I do not know that the time
has now e"seti-when we Anglo. Americans were
spoken OF by our brethern beyond the water, as a
poor, degenerate, almost semi bar5arous race. In
| the liberal journals of England, within thirty
yeas, the question has been contemptuousy asked
IN reference to the native country OF franklin
and Washington, and Adams, and jefferson, and
Madison, and Marshall, of Irving, Prescott, Ban
croft, Ticknor, Bryant, and Cooner. LonpfeIlow
and Hawthorne, and hosts of others: "Who reads
an American book ?'' 1t seems to me in view of
facts like this we ought to be little cautious how
we leap to the conclusion that the free coored Atri
can race is necessarily in a condition of hopeless
inferiori.y.
Then in reference to the other difficulty about
the unmprovabiity of the African. 1t is sail that
the Africans alone of all the branches of the hui
man family have never been able to rise out of bar
| Ill fhOt. I do
that anybody knows it. An impenetrable cloud
hangs over the early history of mankind i'll every
part OF the globe. We well know in reference to
the whole North and West of Europe, and a great
part OF the South OF Europe, that it was utterly
barbarous until the light of the Roman civiliza-
ton shore i'll upon it, and in comparatively recent
| times We also know that in very early times one
OF the native African races, Imean the Egyptians,
attained a high degree of culture. They were the
parents OF all the arts of Greece, and through them
| of the ancient world. The Egyptians, were
colored race They did not belong to the negro
| type; but still they were purely colored race.
AID il we should Judge Of their present condition
| as unimprovable any of the tribes of Central
Africa. Yet we find upon the banks of the Nile,
Inc massive monuments of their cheerleSs culture
that have braved the storms of time more success
iully than the more graceful structures of Rome
| and Greece. "Fa. n .- 90.
II is true that some nations who have emerged
from barbarism at a later period have attained the
precedence over Africa, and have kept il to the
present day; but am not willing 10 believe thai
| this arises from causes fixed and permanent in
their nature, that no reversal, at no length ofme
is to be hoped from their operation. We are led
into error by contemplating things too much in the
gross There are tribes in A frica which have made
no contemplate progress in various branches of
human improvement. On the other hand, il we
look at the population of Europe-if we cast our
eyes from Lisbon to Archangel, from the Hebrides
| TO the Black Sea,-if for a moment we turn orr
thoughts from the few who born to wealth, a nd
IT'S consequent advantages, culture, education and
that lordship over the forces of nature which be
longs to cultivated minti,-if we turn from these
othe benighted, oppressed, destitute, supersti-
tlous, ignorant, suffering millions, who pass their
lives IN the homeless toll of