Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-08-01
By BPCLANAIIAN & DILL.
rnE PROBLRgI or TnE AGE.
10. 1..v.s sssLees E.,ei.e..aaes.

preliminary Of series, which viii gradually
develope his thought Of {" the problem of tht
age'-is induced to bring his views before the
public, in the hope that they may attract to tbs
theme, as a thesis, the attention Of abler and
scuter minds of men of industry and leisure
sud Of the requisite moral and scientific attain
,nents, who will elaborate and expand It, with
sll the convincing arguments of truth, to the
epsrfect conviction of the entire civilized world
The problem of this age, as the writer believes,
dis the permanent adjustment and position Of the
different races Of men on the earta, the neces-
sary acauieseenee therein of al civilized nations,
and the consequent progress and elevation Of ali
races in their relative fitting spheres" But,
before plunging, medias res, into the subject, it
may be wen to take retrospective glance at
some Of the reforming vsgsries of restless minds,
as exhibited a few years back in the Uniiel
States. A Northern publicist, after viewing Tbs
field Of progress and reform" and anslyzing
the various projects put forward for the improve
mont and amelieration of the rAce-classing al
Of humanity under one-and, after considering
the innumeIsble schemes presented for the i'm
provement Of the social condition, laid down
the following propositions:
Rsformers may be divided into four classes,
VIZ:
I. The religious reformer, who looks to spirit
ual influences entirely for mans political and
social regeneration.
2. The socialist, who fixes his hopes upon an
entire reorganization of industry, and the enan-
ciDatiOn of the cardinal passions.
3. The GgIsrian, who requires a forced
periodical equalization Of the landed property Of
he-country among all its Inhabitants.
4. The political reforneT, who relies upon the
equalization of the duties and rights Of al, by
the operation of laws which shall secure TO
every man as much freedom as may compou
with the enjoyment Of an equal freedom by aL
his fellow-citizens.
The essayist remarks thai al the various
orders, secis aud schools Of American meiori5ts
may be included under one or another Of these
classes. Operations are created : presses
are established, and we ought, perhaps, to add,
mad houses filed in giving expression TO this
fertile enthusiasm.
The object Of the essayist is to impress on
Others his confidence in the efficacy of political
agencies to achieve that fual result which all
refornners in common desire"
lie lays DOWNS generally conceded: That
the purpose of civil society IS 10 promote the hap
piness Of all Its members that that happiness csn
only be secured by the qualification of those
natural sppetites, tastes and pTOpensities, which
are necessarily incident to our existence. That
denisls OF these qualifications Is Cause Of Unhap-
piness, and prove that the social state in which
they occur has so far failed Of its purpose.
He admits that every society Of which we
have any knowledge deprives, to a considerable
extent, a large proportion Of its members from
the enjoyment supposed necessary to their hap
piness; that they ere compelled to gtrngg 10 with
physical necessities and political and social Op-
pressions of one kind and another for their
whole lives; that by the burden Of supporting
their existence, they are substantially, excluded
from all participation in the more elevated and
elevating enjoymants Of which our nature IS sus-
csptible; that the great mass Of them cannot
be presumed to have any idesl life; that they
are forever possessed by their material wants;
thai their minds are engrossed by day and night
-7-I season I.Hu Out OF se2son-in devisiag ways
and means Of satisfying the long procession Of
the appetites, as they approach, day after day,
to enforce their uneompromising demands; that
in this ncessant search after the means of living,
they have been forced to forget the ends of life.
Reasoning from the premises thus laid down,
he exclaims "How then is it possible for them
70 experience the emotions which spring from a
pure taste and from elevated sentiments The
inexOrAble constraints of their position must cut
them eff, to a great degree, from all this range
Of pleasures; and their aesthetic susceptibItie5,
from which oil the purest and most precious en-
jOynents OF our nature spring, must die out Of
them. To prevent the continuance Of this state
Of things IS the true Office of the social reformeI;
for to secure the opposite is the great purpose Of
civil society"
The purpose Of these articles IS to take issue
with the fourth proposition as elucidated by the
remarks which follow it above, and to under
take to show that its whole theory is upon an
iiea, that the All-wise in forming different races
Of men with different mental, moral and physi-
cal structures, ranging to an almost unlimited
extent in their susceptbiites and capacities, has
erred, and that it is possible for man to amend
and improve the Creators work by making aIl
men equal As opposed to this theory of puri-
tanical blasphemy we PROFOUND, that God in
creating different races Of men designed each to
fiji its particular sphere Of duties, and endowed
them with capacities, suscephbilities and physi-
cal conformation accordingly.
In looking over the animal creation we see
that God created different races Of animals. with
different suscepdbilities-some keen, and quiv-
ering to the slightest touch, some dull and
stolid. We notice, too, that He has permitted
different races of men-as the Caucasian or
European, the Mongol or Asistic, the Indian
or American, the negro or Africau-vsrying in
their physical formation Of body, limbs and
head; of color, skin and hair; Of tissue Of bones
and muscle, and in other minor matters not nee
essary to revert to. History and philcs-
ophy give evidence that these races have
different moral and spiritual natures, and
different grades even of physical sgscep-
tibiIities some with keen apprecisiions
Of and longing for higher condition, alying
them as it wero with the angels (and among
the angels, we are taught, by inspiration, there
are ranks and grades, )-others, lower in the
scale, without such aspirations, or in grosser
form one race aspires ever TO spiritual elsya-
ton; another mostly and often merely to physi-
cal q Orts. One race He has placed above
the o. 4, as Of old He placed the Patriarchs, as
mastss, having .ftted them for command; an
other He placed as "hewers of wood and draw
ers Of water" It is this God-0rdained relation
Of races, when brought together that fanatic
reformers weuld change; and, for a time past,
nations have been carried away by the false
idea, and have been crazsd with the fallacy.
The contest now going on between the Cenfed-
crate States and the United States may probs-
bly, be, through its effect on the public mind Of
the world, to change this error of nations, and
bring back al peoples TO once moro see and ac-
knnEEledge tha wisdom Of God in this relation