The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-29

In any event, we must make mp our minds to
behold this grand meridional empire, Ike
Behemoth, biggest born Of earth,
| Upheave lis yastness-"s
To make this ours, 1t appears to me that we
| have only to extend ourselves, our civilization
| and form of government into the tropics, oy
| means of the black men now among US, and
| through them, impress ourselves upon the pres
ent population, thus excluding any other power
Is it possible to do so Ten years have sufiiced
| to plant half a million of our free white people
| in California They went thither without aid OF
protection from the Government, because they
| could there acquire fortune more rapidly than In
the older States. A half million more who went
out have returned with fortunes realized. This
exodus 20 the land of gold has redounded to the
wealth and greatness of the Republic, because
we did not lose the labor of citizens, but only
changed the locality in which that labor was
employed; and because il was FIVE times more
remunerative there than here, the manifold in
terest of the whole country prospered by the
creation of the additional wealth. The free
blacks in this country amount to something more
than half million. If similar inducements were
held out to them, would they not also go forth
to better their condition in country where their
labor would be more productive2 1t may be said
that they have not the energy, knowledge, or
means, of the white men who peopled onr Pacific
coast. This may be admitted; for the pioneers
of the Golden State were the most enterprising
of our heroic and indomitable race. But neither
the distance nor the dangers attending q voyage
to the tropics are as great as those which barred
the way to our Pacific possessions. Nor are the
motives which impelled our people in such num-
bers and with such rapid fight to gather fortune
there half so urgent as those which should, and
which, | may venture to say, will, animate our
free negroes to fly country in which their con-
dition is that of degraded and prosecuted caste,
for one in which they can have no superiors, and
one in which their widest dreams of wealth can
be realized with the least possible toll.
The tropical regions of America are the rich
est in the whole world This is due to the Pc
culiar CONFORMATION of that part of our CONT
nent, and the prevalence of the northeastern and
southeastern trade winds, which come sweeping
across vast expanse of ocean, surcharged with
moisture; and striking at right angles upon the
coast, they penetrate deep into the interior,
where the moisture is precipitated by the cold
atmosphere of the mountains, forming the largest
rivers in the world, which traverse the entire
country impartng to it the most extraordinary
/ fertility, and giving unquestonable guaranty of
its being the predestined seat of future empire.
For civilization, be 1t observed, is OF amphbious
birth. 1t has ever arisen the shore, on the
banks of the navigable rivers, half from the food
]
and the great cities which stood, as it were,
| knee-deep or still stand, in the waters of the
| Mediterranean, vouch for this A river country,
sooner or later, becomes the seat of opulence and
/ power, and the country to which | allude has a
pre-eminent title to that appellation. Even here,
/ on the banks ofthe beautiful river" | am con-
strained to declare that the Amazon, the La Pla-
Ia, and the Orinoco, together with their tributa-
ries, arc unrivalled on either continent; nor are
! Il ala r1,gNo ID
less diversity of gorgeous scenes, such boundless
expanses of vegetable and floral magnifcence, as
their valleys disclose In the whole tropical re-
gion of our continent, the eye of man may behold
one unending round of vernal promise and ripen-
ing harvests. There, the opening blossom and
the matured fruit mingle On the same stem, which
is released from its burden and converted into a
cornucopia by every passing breeze. The same
gentle swaying that whitens the ground with the
petals of the former, strews it with the bursting
fruit. The radiant climate has no winter in
lis year." and the omnipresent summers, or,
rather, the three seasons in their indivisible
union, have no interregnum in their rule, and
give the teeming earth no rest from the labor OF
bringing forth her choicest productions. There
the task of agriculture will be, not TO stimulate,
but to repress and tame the powers of the soil.
/ There the household, however numerous, will
not be adequate to gather what the solitary hus-
4 bandman shall SOW. Hours of labor viii pur-
chase weeks of luxurious ease. Skies and earth
air and water, proclaim the promised land, nay
the paradise of the negro. While the white man
! degenerates and withers in the glare of all its
/ splendor, sinking into valetudinarian impotent
/ in body and mind, or suddenly encounters death
in breathing the subtle pOisOns with which its
exhalations are pregnant, the black man, by vir-
tue of that mysterious quality of organism con-
ferred by race, finds these exhalations innoxious
and the torrid glare an elixir for body and mind
His very pores, like those of plant, seem to alb
sorb the solar light and fire, and the reekings oil
the moist and warm earth affect his health as
little as the odor of hecatombs did the disposition
of the Epicurean gods. In such a region, his
nature is in harmony with all the elements which
surround him.