Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-08-12
returning Reason.

There seems to be a possibility that the va
carries of negrophilism may have an END al 10
distant day. The current of public opinion
i evidently setting in the opposite direction
from that of its flow for some years. ne
change is marked in the South ana IN 'he
North, and even in the old world.
The Investigations of scientific men have
thrown food of light upon the true status
Of the negro in the scale of humanity, ana
the commercial world is fully assured of the
fnti,itv OF practical abolitionism. The tustian
of Exeter Hall, and the experiments at eman-
citation in San Domingo and Hayti have I'M
uuestfonably had their day. While this state
of things undoubtedly exists, we are pleased
to find they are meeting with their proper &C
acknowledgement in those quarters of our own
country. which may have been led too far in
their mistaken philanthropy and their ridlcu-
lous sympathy for the negro. The CINCINNATI
C0soeericds of late date, deVotes well-con-
side-ed and logical article to this subject, I'M
slavv the head OF "Property in Man., from iron!
one of the most formidable Black Republican
journals of the country:
at is, we do not doubt. an opinion honestly
entertained by many that the negroes of the
Southern States differ from the whites only
in the degree of their civilizations: and that
nothing is wanting but emancipation and edu-
cation to elevate them TO such state of intel
lectual and moral equality, as TO entitle them
under the rule that all men are created e.
qual-to share in the duties and privileges of
government; and from this is dedUced the idea
of the obligation. on the part Of the Anglo
Saxon people of the United States. to emanci-
pate and educate their African brethren. as
they are called: and of the great wrong that
is committed against them, when such eman-
cipation and education are delayed, or alto
gether neglected. Now, however honestly
such opinions may have been entertained
they are, without doubt, incorrect. Modern
research has let in a food of light upon the
subject OF the diversity of the races of men,
and of the differences in their Developments
and destiny growing out of that diversity.
In celebrated work, published few years
ago in France, by Count A. De Gobineau. and
devoted to the consideration of this subj ct.
the author sums up the result OF his researches
as follows:
".This is what the whole course Of history
teaches us. Every race has its own modes of
thinking; every race, capable of developing
civilization, develops one peculiar to itself,
and which 1t cannot cngratt upon any other,
except by amalgamation of blood and then
in but a modified degree. The European can
not win the Asatic to his modes of thinking:
he can not civiliZe the Australian or the ne
gro; he can transmit but portion of his in
tellgcnce to his halfbreed offspring Of the in
feriOr race: the progeny of that halfbreed
and the nObler branch of his ancestry. is but
one degree nearer, but not equal to that branch
in capacity; the proportions of blood are strict
ly preserved
''Without discussing the question whether
or not the whole human race is descended from
common ancestry, no doubt exists as to the
fact that there are types of mankind. which.
according to the testimony of all the historic
ages, are permanent-that there are different
branches of the human family each of which
is possessed of a certain Individuality that
distinguishes it from all the others, which is
independent of climate and the lapse of time
and can only be affected by intermixture, and
then but to the disadvantage of the superior
element. The difference is not simply in de-
gree, it is difference in kind; involving not
merely the question Of the capacity for civil
ziIiOn, but of every quality in the develop
ment of which civilization consists.
I'VE, the descendants from an Anglo-Gcr-
manic parentage, believe ourselves to be not
only the most civilized people in the world,
but the people possessing the highest capacity
for civilization. We claim to stand at the top
of the scale; while looking at the African ne
gro we place him at, or nearly at the bottom.
Three thousand years ago. our race was pO-
tentially, though not actually all that it is
now. Three thousand years ago, the negro
was what he is now potentially and actually.
His progress is not perceptible. If in Ameri-
ca he has not the capacity to become a citizen
in orr sense of the term, he certainly has not
the title; for rational man can deny that
the latter ought always to depend upon the
former"
Concluding the article and referring to nu-
merOus statistics and authorities cited, the
writer says:
''If we are of sufficient capacity TO Judge,
they show most cOnclusively that the aboli- !
tion of slavery and the elevation of the blacks |
of the South to u condition of civil equality |
with their masters, would be followed by con |
sequences anything but desirable 10 them
selves and most disastrous to the other party |
shat being incapable of republican self |
government it is impossible for them to be- |
come, in n political sense, q desirable part of |
a republican seli-governing people-that be- |
ing much wanting in capacity for spon-
taneOus industry as in capacity for self-gov-
ernment. the juXtaposition of the two races
renders the servitude of the one or the expul
sion of the other matter of absolute neces-
sity-that, in short, the presence of a hume
rous black population in a community OF
whites is inconsistent with the safety of either
race, except upon the terms that the former
hold to the latter the relation of property"
From the Banner, august IL.
Gem ZoIlfcoHer,s SDeech