Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1860-02-23


"Bahomcth, biggest born Of earth,
Upheavc its vassnes -
To make this ours, it appears to me that We have
only to extend ourselves. our civilization and form
of government, into the tropics. BY means OF the
black men now among us, and, through them, inn
press ourselves upon the present population, thus
excluding any other power l. il possible to do sol
Ten years hive snffIccd to plant half million of
our free white people in California They went
thither without aid or protection from the Govern
ment, because they could there acquire fortune
more rapidly than in the older States. half million
more who went out have returned with fortunes re-
allied. This exodus to the land of gold has re-
bounded to the wealth and greatness OF the Repub
lie. because We DID not lose the labor of our citi
zens, but only chinsed the locality in which that
labor was employed; lnl because it was five time 5
more rcmunerative there than here the mafod in
terest of the country prospered by the creation of
the additional wealth The free blacks in this
country amount to something more than half a
million II similar inducements were held out to
them. would they not also so forth to better heir
condition in country where their labor would be
more productive? 1t tmly be said that they have
not the energy. knowledge, or means. of the white
men who peop.ed our Pacific coast. This may be
admitted; for the pioneers OF the Golden State were
the most enterprisng CT our heroic and ndomitable
race But neither the dist,nce nor the dangers at
tending voysce to the tropics are great as
those which barred the way to our Plciffic posses
sions. Nor re the motives which impellcd our
people in such numbers and with such RAPID flight
TO gather fortune there halfso urgent those which
should, and which, may venture to say, will ami
mate our free negroes to ay the country in which
their condition is that Of deer lded and
caste, for one in which they can have no superorS,
and one in which .heir widest dreams of wealth
can be realized with the least possible toll.
The tropical regions of America are the richest
in the whole world. This is due to the peculiar
conf suration fthat part of our continent, and the
prevalence of the northeastern and southeastern
trade winds, which come sweeping across vast ex-
parse of ocean, surcharSed with moisture; and sri-
king az light angles upon the coast they penetrate
deep in the interior, where the moisture is precipi
tated by the cold atmosphere of the mountains,
forming the largest rivers in the world, which ira
the entire country, imparting to it the most
extraordinary fertility, and giving unquesiionablc
guaranty ofits being the p.edesned seat of future
empire. For civilization, be it observed, is of am
phbous birth II has ever arisen on the sea shore,
ON tie banks of navigable rivers. half from the
flood and half from the land. The Ganges, the
Nile, and the great cities which STOOD as it were
knee Deep still stand, in the waters of the Med
iterranean, vouch for this. river country. soon
er or later becomes the seat of opulence and pow
er, and the country to which I allude h,s pre-
eminent title tot that appellation. Even here on the
banks of the "beau;iiul river" lam constrained to
declare that the Amazon, the La Plata, and the
Orinoco, together with their tributaries, are unri
vailed on either continent, nor arc there anywhere
else on the globe such an endless diversity of gor-
eeous scenes, such boundless expanses of vegeta-
be and floral mlgnifcence, as their valleys dis
close. In the whole tropical region of our cont
ncnt, the eye of man my behold unending
round OF vernal promise and rpcning harvests.-
There, the opening blossom and The IN ,turcd fruit
mingle on the sumo stem, which is released from
its burden and conv erted into cornucopa by every
passing breeze. The stale gentle swaying that
whitens the ground with the petals of the former,
strcws it with the busrting fruit. The radiant eli
mate "has no winter in its year." and the omni-
present summc.s or, rather, the three seasons in
their indvsib,e union, have no nterregnum in their
rule. and give the tecmln5 earth no rest from the
labor Of bringing forth Ia choicest productions
There the task ofagricultlre will be- not to stimu-
late but 10 repress and tame the powers of the SOIL
There the household, however numerous, will not
be adequate 10 gather what the solitary husband
man shal sow. Hours cfabor viii purchase weeks
OF luxurious ease. Skies and earth air and water,
proclaim the promised land, my, the paradise of
the negro While the white mln iegencrites and
wtlers in the glare of all its splenior, sinking into
a 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 virtue OF that mysterious quality
of organism, conferred by race, finds these exhala-
tions innox'ous, and the torrid glare an elixir for
body and mind. His very pores, like those of a
plant, seem to absorb the solar light and fire, and
the rcekines the moist and warm earth affect his
health little the oior of hectatombs did the dis
position OF the Epicurean gods. IN such region
his nature is in hlrmony with all the elements
which surround him.
-"Afric is iii the smns
And as her earth her human clay is kin led
His form gows with more intense and buoyant
! animal life, presenting striking contrast to the
sckly exotic of Circassian blood. in the exuberance
of its native joy, and his soul laughs back to the
laughing landscapes, which. like Aaron's rod blow
in single night. And who shall say that the same
congenial influences would not aid in evolving the
latent capacities oil his intellectual nature--a nature
which has never yet had opportunity for selfde
velopmcnt under the auspices of Christianity Il
were irrational to answer in the negative, when We
know that universal harmony subssts between the
moral and the natural world.
In the tropical esions of Asia and Africa the pre-
vailing winds do n 1t traverse such wide extent o
ocean, and hence do not collect such vast amount
of water those which fan the face of the tropical
regions of America The direction ofthe former
| is parallel with the coast, while here the trade
winds strike the coast perpendicularly, penetrating
and carving their moisture into the Interior
Hence il is that the coasts only of the tropical re
gions of Africa and Asia are fringcd with yerdure
and the vast interior is raness desert, impenc
trable and fatal to life. This, which appears tc
me to be a most striking and philosophical reason
for the great difference existing between the inter
tropical regions OF America and those of older con
tnents. lind in PAM shlet by Lieut.. Maury on the
basin Of the Amazoa. Another remarkable differ
! enee is, that in the Asiatc ard African tropics
there is dry and wet on, each lasting half the
year. This is accounted fer by the fict that the
winds do not prevail steadily anil unvaryingly from
the sea, is the casein America within the torrd
zone. This wet and dry season which aternatcs
in Asia and Africa. according to my information
is what has heretofore rendered it impossible to
cultivate cotton in those regions. Many years
since, | read a statement made by Mississippi
cotton PLANTER, who had been employed by the Brit
ish Government to test the praccability ofraisng
cotton in India to supply her m lnufacturers, and
| This gentleman was undoubtedly selected On ac-
count of his intelligence and practical experience.
So momentous and important trust could not
have been c0nfded to incompetent or unfaithtul
hands, by such wise and able men as the British
rulers have proved themselves to bc-and tho can
be no doubt that they presented the very strongest
motives to urge him to success in the undertaking
/ What reward would England grudgc the man who
could give her supply OF cotton in Indm1 But
the experiment, after long and patient trial. failed
and the reason for the failure, giycny the gentle
man Of whom hove spoken, was the prevalence
of wet and dry scasons-a season of floods and a
season of drought. each occupying half the year
When planted at the beginning OF the rainy season.
IL flouris,cd for WHILE but the long continuance