Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1859-02-24
Frank Blair on the Races.

Hon. Z. z. blair, ,tr. delivered lecture
at Boston on the 26th ult., upon "The Des
tiny of the Races"
In this lecture he takes the ground, at
once as it seems to us, philosophical and
humane, that the alledged superiority of
race of which we hear so much, and which
is urged as a sufficient ground for the per-
petuity of slavery, is not an absolute SUI
periority, but one relative only to certain
climates. The white race in temperate
climates like those of the United States,
may be MS superior to the negro race the
most ardent advocates of slavery contend,
but this vauntsd superiority ceases the
moment we pass into tropical climates
] in which the negro attans to increased
vigor and energy; while the white man
/ dwindles under the cnervating effect of heat
: and malaria, and even looses the power of
propagating his race. Why should the
black man be dragged into climate not
favorable to his constitution or develop
mcnt, there to be the slave of the white man,
and kept in state of perpetual degrada-
tion, in which both social physical causes
concur, while a vast extent of the earth's
surfacc-cxceeding that of the two temper
ate zones. for which only the negro an,l
other colored races are adapted-still
awaits the productive skill of science and
civilization? Would it not be far better
instead OF perpetuating in these temperate
latitudes for which nature never designed
them, degraded race of slaves, to fit this
same race for adding TO the dominions of
civilization vast regions in which they live
and flourish and we cannot
Why should we not follow on in the
path which our revolutionary forefathcrs
markell out? They proclaimed, life, lib
crty and the pursuit of happiness as the
equal right of all men. Beginning with
those Northern States which were palpa-
bly, least congenial, physically considered,
to the negro race. they abolished slavery.
They provided, by the ordinance of 1877,
that no slaves should be introduced into
new latitulcs They abolished the Afri-
can slave trade, fondly hoping that in do
ing that, they had struck blow at the in
stitution of Slavery which must speedily
result in its total cessation.
1t remains for us to carry out the same
DOiltN "a Nutl iiOt tiic ltSS llCuiliDcllJ up
on us from the recent efforts, at the head
of which the Supreme Court Of the U. S
has placed itself, to reverse the policy OF
the Revolutionary fathers, to explore tleiI
favoritc ideas of the rights of man and ex-
ccllencc of freedom, and to convert this
country from the land of the free into the
, home of tho slave. The heroic resistance
|, of Kansas to the attempts to impose Sla-
very upon her has secured not only Free
Labor for herself, but the ultimate exten.
sion of that same system along hcl
parallels of latitude across the entire con.
|, tincnt. Missouri itself. snatcheI from the
hands of freedom in 1920, will now, it i,
conceded, buttressed up by Free Labor
, State on her western frontier, soon assum,
her natural position. The influence ot
this Gordon of Free Labor States cannot
| but be very great on the extension of Free
dom. To their development railroad tC
the Pacific is very essential, and that form.
another leading topic Of Mr.. BIair's lee
: ture.-N T. Tribune