Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1853-05-05
VOL. VII.

fefhapS IL is not IN the order of that. Provi
dence that Africa shall receive directly from
us either blood-stained civilization or
complete Christianity; but that one shall b,
developed out OF herself from which our
may take softer and more heavenly Iustre
Our eye alights ut this moment on a para
graph from the National Intelligencer, which
states that The American Missionaries in
Africa, have found a new tribe OF people
moving from the interior towards the coast
remarkable lor their pure religious ideas ant
susceptlbllIiies, whose language is 'one o
the most perfect and harmonious in all the
world, and whose agency is hoped for in
'dlffuslng Christianity and civilization
Whatever may be the influence Of the col
ony of Liberia upon American slavery, we
think it will furnish important aid if not in
solving questions of'Anatomy and EthnoIo.
gY,' yet in enlarging and perfeclng the sci
ence Of Anthropology. This colony has un.
fortunately been the subject of contradictory
representations, but we presume there is no
doubt as TO its present condition aud pros.
poets. The Rev. Mr.. Rockwell, late chap
lain in the navy, in his excellent book oil
travels, gives full, and we doubt not, an i'm.
partial, picture of the state of the colony
Ii is picture of thrift and industry, of WELL
established schools where all The children are
educated, Of churches filled with devout wor-
shippers, of quiet, social order under the in
huence of healthy public moral sentiment,
of comfortable dwellings neatly furnished,
and of pure Christian manners. A later
traveller describes the appearance and de-
bates of its Legislative assembly, and if il did
not exhibit so much Intellectual power and
dextertv as the American congress, il ex-
hibited great deal more Of decency and de-
| cOrum
But mark, now, the bearing of these facts
on the question of the native capacities of the
negro. We are never 10 forget that the Lii
berIan is lineal descendant OF the Guinea
slave; that is to say, that he is the expansion
of the lowest type of the negro race. Look
at the descendants of the same ancestry close
by on the Guinea coast, or in the dominions
OF his Majesty the king Dahomey sitting in
his palace with its roof ornamented with
jaw-bones and its floors paved with negro
skulls. This picture and then that And
recollecI, when contemplating that scene OF
Christian worship, when OIL some Sabbath
morning the music of the church bells rolls
over the Iropic gardens and coffee fields and
population of many thousands wend quietly
| from their neat and happy homes 10 their
places of prayer, that this dawn of cvillza-
ton has but just broken on a long night of
oppression and wrong that this condition
OF social, civil and religious order has been
evolved through cruel vassaIage and disen-
| franchisemenl from the most degraded stock
OF the colOred races-and then, if you can,
despair of the negro or of man!
The peculiar susceptibility of the negro race,
| and the peculiar style of character and society
which he will develop, cannot very well be
mistaken. In his savage state, as with all 9TH
er races, the sensueus faculties are chiefly ac-
tive, and the animal or demon alone appears.
Such was the Anglo-Saxon, the grim wor-
shipper Of Odin and the pirate of the Northern
seas But when the nature Of the, negro is
elevated and fertiized, he exhibits style of
character which is all his own. The artistic
skill, the Grecian intellect, the Englishman' s
robust reason and broad comprehensivenesss,
or.the Yankees perseverance, and right-hand-
ed cunning, can never be his. The more ex-
quisite productions of art and genius, the pro-
founder discoveries of philosophy, the more
magnificent works of science and mechanism,
are out of his range. Not his Intellectual but
| his af1ectionate nature will be the basis of his
improvement and civilization. His family and
social affections are strong and ardent, and
unless torn away by violence, he would never
have left his native cline. His feelings ale
lively and volatile, gay as child's, and ten
der as woman's. There is uniformly in his
nature soft and plaintive tunefulness, not dis
guised even in the wild music Of his native
groves, but which is poured out, in all its quiv-
erng pathOs, in Moravian hymns. Above all,
his religious affections and susceptibllitles are
deep and inexunguishable, incapable of being
cooled into creeds and forms, but moving in
tumultuous thrObs aud grateful ecstacies un-
der all exhibitions of Divine love. No people
could be so easily Christlanized as this. The
Moravian Missionaries went among the Hot
tentots, who, though not strictly of the negro
type, are slight variation from it, and they
soon gathered 800 converts into their fold
while members from remote tribes were still
thronging around them to hear. But the Cape
colOnists were jealous Of the influence of the
missionary, and the salvation of souls must moi
interfere with trade The first emancipation
Of slaves in the West India Islands, was amid
a scene of prayer and devotion on the part Of
the slaves as morally sublime as anything we
know of in history. And whoever has studied
the characteristics of the colored population OF
the United States, whether slave or free
knows very well that there Is no class of peo-
pie whose natures respond more quickly to the
more glowing exhibitions of Christian truth
or rather of Christian love, for that is what
MethOdism makes primary and fundamental
or is more easily moulded under its elastic
power. The nature of the African is pecu.
liarlv open and susceptible on the side OF the
supernatural, making him plant to all those
influences which draw man upward into com
munion with spiritual world.
The question whether the African in his ma
tive capacity is equal TO the Anglo-Saxon, is {
question just about as sensible AS another which
is now mooted go much; whether the capacities
of woman are equal to those of man. 1t is
just about as sensible, that is, as the question
whether love is equal to wisdom, the hear
equal to the head; or yet again, whether a line
is equal 10 an angle, or pound sterling equa
to pound avoirdupois. They are quantities
of different denominations, and none but block
heads attempt to work them in the same equa
tion. Every race of men is different style o
human nature from every other, bears its owr
stamp and superscription from the Divine hand
and when uniolded and elevated, will have it;
own style of character and of society. Fol
what other reason in the world were mankinC
made TO exist in distinct races, but that eact
may exist distinct phass of the common hu
manity that inlays them, and SO unfold and fl
up in each direction all its varied and glorious
possibilities In the character of the African
when unfUlded by education, in the various ne
gro nations, and especially those more ad
vanced and civilized, we see the germs and ell
ements of forms of society unlike our own, We
presaging not less an auspicious future Hi
religion will never be Calvinistic Christian