Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1858-01-28

i tive genius has never gone beyon,
| the spear or bow; not that they d
mot appreciate the superiority Q
firearms, for they will sell child
wife or parent for q couple Of worn
out muskets and keg Of damaged
powder.
In literature they have made alb
solutely no progress. OF the ma
ay nations which compose the Ne
gro family, not one has an alpha
bet, or even hieroglyphics, or writ
ten characters of any description
1t is true that some of their mos
learned men have been taught Ara.
bic and can read the Koran, but
this is confined to the tribes who
have been conquered into the Mo-
bamedan religion, and is an amount
Of learning by no means general
evek in those tribes. The vast
majority Of the Negro race would
regard a book as a cunningly de.
vised piece Of magic, aud would
at once discard it as the work of
the devil. 1t is unnecessary to
say they have no poets, historians,
painters nor sculptors.
In all Negro land there is not
brick or stone edifice built by
Negro hands and planned by Ne
gro intelligence-the finest cities
are but collections of rude huts,
composed of suniried mud and
bamboos. Even the palaces Of prin-
ces. are of the same material, dis
tinguished only by the size. And
not single ruin has yet heen
discovered which points to a higher
state of civilization than they now
enjoy, but if they were ever more
advanced in architecture than at
present, every trace Of the fact has
been obliterated.
Such are the results accomplish
ed by seventy-fve millions of the
Negro race when left for thousands
of years to work out their own desti-
ny.
But perhaps the truest test Of
the negro character is the form of
government, and the systems Of law
which negroes adopt when not in
auenced by foreign Interference
Government is the aggregate in
tellect and power of a people, and
all nations in the long run, work out
just that amount of liberty to
which they are by nature entitled.
They may be oppressed for time
and forced out Of their true position
by the strong arm OF power, and
the pressure Of circumstances, but
few centuries restore the equilibrium
and surround them with that amount
Of freedom which they are capable
of enjoying. Different races have
not the same aspirations for liberty,
and hence the great difference IN
Governments. One nation willing
ly submits 10 ruling power and
requires a system of laws which
another would regard as the most
oppressive tyranny; and what would
result in good order and happiness
with one people, if applied to TN
other would produce anarchy and
confusion. True liberty implies
law and order, and the best govern
ment is that which without regard
to name or form secures to the
subject just that amount of free
dom suited to bis capacity, and re-
strains him SO far as his own we'll
being requires. If all mankind
knew what was right and wrong,
just and unjust, and possessed the
will to adopt the one and discard
the other, laws might be dispen-
sed with altogether. But differ
ing as they do in degrees Of in
telligence and appreciation of the
rights Of others, experience teaches
that some men eau only be hap
py under republican government
and others in monarchies. The
citizens Of our own happy country
would be miserable if forced to live
under the rule Of a despotic power,
but who can say that the vola-
tile Frenchman, and the cruel Aus
train would better their conditions
by establishing democracies? Gov
|ernment is not one Of the fine
ARTS to be pTsNounced upon like a
painting or piece Of statuary, &C
!cordipg to the mere sentiment OF