The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-19
THE NEGRO QUESTION IN .Un0 .rv

The immense run which ohe'o
:. ,..;nv in Europe, has called forth many a"'
-. commands from the press IN all qu''
20 One Of them by Theophile 'au''ef' q
'e'.' 80. yarisian press, ofgreat eminehce,
,.y from the original French aho
- hel~. We take the opportunity 70 ca
~ II entire dissent from the specuia"ons
pe author. The African race, so iar as 'hey
had an opportunity, in this country at
.ss,. have proved themselves susceptible OF
h;rb degree of civilization. There are thou
..nds and tens ofthousands among them, with
80. nsr,eIe of white blood in their veins, who
are intelligent men, susceptible Of mental and
moral cultivation, in a degree almost as great
ss the whites themselves. In this respect they
differ widely from the children of Shem, the
wild Indian, found upon the soil, all attempts
10 civilze whom have utterly failed. To class
such race with the inferior animals of crea-
,;ou. is, therefore, evidently unphilosophcal /;
and Il the intelligent colored man feels himself
hurt by the comparison, he has only to blame
his friend, Mrs. Stowe, and those who, like her,
have placed him in a situation which exposes
him TO all manner Of criticism.
However we subjoin the extract for what it
is worth
TRANSLATION.
"Tbe success of Uncle Toms Cabin COM
rnencing with La Presse, and continued in the
other journals, is extended to the stage. Eve
nv Theatre must have its Uncle Tom,' and
for a whole month we shall be condemned to
black (euilleton. The French have become
little Americanised, SO far as this mania is con-
cerned, which is propagated with amazing ra-
pidity, no man knows why.
..
"We have no negroes in France. They
would, indeed, be valueless here for cultivatipg
the sugar-cane, which we have not, and the
whites are all-sufficient, in this temperate eli
mate, for the culture of the beetroot. Our colo
MES have no longer any but free laborers, and
the question of slavery, so exciting on the 9TH
er side of the Atlantic, is interesting to US only
in general view of the human race. That,
however, is sufficient to move all hearts, and
the pathetic situations of Madame Stoves ro-
nance, have made as many sentimental tears
For our ownpart, we too have always been
deeply impressed by that mysterious race, if
not exactly after the philanthropic fashion Of
Wilberforce, at least after fashion philosophy
caly photographic. Are those dark phantoms,
which appear to have been kneaded of a soil
different from the red earth out of which God
fashioned Adam. really of the.same species
with us What curse condensed the shadow
upon their faces ? Must we believe the rab-
binical story which tells us that the color of
Ham was changed as punishment for his ha-
wing m1cked his father Noah while he was
drunk, and that he was thenceforth condemned
TO perpetual inferlority TO his brothers? Has
the fierce sun of Africa charred their skins to
the color of charcoall Or, leaving the book
Of Genesis entirely out of the question, must
we follow the immense scale Of life, which as.
cends from the primordial cellule by an I'M
interrupted graduation, up to man, and take the
negro as the connecting link between the
Duran Otang and ourselvesl Under that sup
position the negro must have preceded the
white man upon the earth, during those ante
ages. These are problems, the solution OF
which would require volumes, and degree OF
knowledge which, perhaps, no man possesses.
We content ourselves with merely stating
them.
"This strange race, concentrated in the i'm
penetrable heart Of Africa, fertile in monsters
leads savage life, in the midst OF a climate
arid even to parching, or wildly exuberant in a
disorderly egetation-upon sands scorching as
the sands of burnt world, or among an mex.
tricable labyrinth of opunta, mangoes, bno.
babs, mimosas, euphorhuses, and giant cane
brakes. 1t propagates in darkness, without re-
ligion, without laws, without traditions, with
out arts, in the bosom of deserts which NO Eu
ropean has ever penetrated, in the depths of ia
bulous countries, traversed by chimerical ri
vers, which rise, no one can tell in what spot
and empty, no one can tell where from the
elevated region Of Abyssinia, TO the Cape
of Good Hope. The darkness of its counte
nance seems to be reflected in its history.
Gin that ancient land, one of the FIRST which
presents itself, and in which alone it is abort.
pretensions than leaf or mud huts; it has, in
deed, remained in its primitive barbarism in
religion, not getting beyond the grossest fet;
ehism; in art, stopping at shell necklaces
and the process of tattooing; in language, moi
progressing farther than the jabber of infancy
while its black generations have succeeded
each other without leaving any trace behind
All that woolly curly, hideous people, varying
in color from ebony to chocolate, keep up q
perpetual war among themselves, pursuing
each other, killing each other, eating each
other, and being, each to other, not less for
m'dable than the elephants, crocodiles, hip
popotamuses, rhinoceroses, lions, pantheIs, and
the rest of the monslrous menagerie that
screams, weeps, neighs, bellows, roars, barks
and news around its kraals. There little
children, with refinement of cruelty altogeth.
er uncomfortable, are still sacrificed on the al
tars OF black Moloch, the creature of Afri
can superstition. There the sentimental fa,he
barriers his wife for bottle of tafs and his ten
der offspring for handful ef nails. Their
prisoners of war are sold for few charges G
gunpowder, few old muskets, or few ward
of calico, unless the captors Drefer IN reserv