, 1861-04-17

One Of the Washington correspondents Of
the n. 7. Times is q Vitgipian BY birth, and
long resided in Tennessee. IN recsnt letter
he speaks Of tho tntermixture going on in the ]
Sonth, betwee the white aud black races,
from which We make the following extract:
notice in the Times of the 4th, statement
signed :" A Virginiaa," the object Of which il to
correct al error, which be attributes to you,
/. regard to the legal statsas Of persons having
negro blood. He says that Tin Virginia.
whore there is only one,eighth OF African blood,
and ge7En-eigh{hs Of white blood, the lay de-
clares such . person to be- +: ee white-and :
such pessons passing into it. - The natural
inference from this statement is, that when
slaye ceases to have more than pnerefghth Of
African blood, h6'becomes free but this Is by
no means the case. The law referred to, de-
fines who are mulattoes orfree colored persona;
and. while it confers all the privileges Of
white citizen upon q free person having only
one-eighth Of negro blood, the immunity has
no application to slaves. The consequence is,
that here are slaves in Virginia as white, and
often whittier, than their masters. Bat there
are no white Stree negroes" if may, be al
=" 4 Virginian," that when h.y pass the third
degree II descent from the African properstus,
thsy cease to be regarded BY law, OF in fact, as
frae negroes, and take rank with the whites
for the most part doubtless with the s'poor
whites" but occasionally also with the first
.f3mlies.h
! called attention to this law in letter to
the 1in.es last summer, md warned the South
ern people of the fatal corruption of blood
which: Is rap.dly going On in this way, In kpite
Of their strong pre- jndices against negro equali-
ty, The present generation Of southernsrs is
still fill Of the pride Of ancestry, and no peo.
pie could be more tenacious Of their Anglo.
Saxon origin, than those who are ready to 60
to war for the tight Of extending and p.rpetu-
atiny slavery Battn spite o. pride, prejudice,
ra]igion, morality and legal restraints, the pro.
cess Of amalsamation is rapidly going on and
riers of cast and the Southern people willb
recognized BY themselves and by the world as
q mixed race-half European and half African
I have long seen that the true cause Of the ap-
psreutly slow increase Of the free negroes, in
The North aud South. is to BIS found in the fact
adyerted to by IA VIrginian, !" viz: That they
become white, and take rank with the whites.
=. This evil IL inconsderabie In the free States;
but In the South, and especially in the Confed-
crate States, the two rae are nearly equal In
numbers, and the tendency is to an increase
In :the proportion Of the African element
i fact OF their bleaching out produces no change
in their condition IN the eyes Of the Law. But
this cannot always be the case. A turn Of the
wheel of fortune, which Mr. Jefarson declares
+ to :bs thing by no meaaB impossible, may
put sill claese son terms Of political equality,
Indeed, he asserts, aud all history and expert
enea sustain him In the assertion, that the
REVOLUTION must at some day come But even
without any sudden disruption Of society, the
slov but cartain effect Of anA]gamation ID to
reiuca i'll classes to common color and COM
mon social condition. The Northern slave
States, by sending their bondrnen South, and
substituting free white labor, will escape this
/ degradation; but fate seems to have fixed
|. upon the Cotton Confederacy a. the aboda for
! Ill time ct q mu1atto raee similar in complex
ion to that Of the Moors aud other seui.Atrica1
/ people. =" -