The Union. [volume] (Georgetown, Del.) 1863-1866, 1863-11-06

tnVse VI bne WilJe ndn II bne Scienco VI
anatomy and physiology present such facts,
what ignorance is shown in the popular inn
preston that the difference between the white
and black man is merely of color" fss
will hereafter animadvert upon the adsur-
dity, nay, reckless folly, of the assertion that
=" Nature instructs us that without Divine in
reference there could and would have been
but one complexion"
, The Elder has dwelt, with apparent
satisfaction upon, and in several places has
referred to the Physiological differences be-
tween the white man and the negro" Up. 81
Moses, in speaking of the three sons of Noah,
declares that % of tllon ,yas the whole earth
verspread." (Gen. TX. 19.) Again, "And
the whole earth was of one language and Of
one speech." (Gen. xI. ~ Saint Paul, also,
in his mastery and jusly celebrated address
to the Athenian courtof Areopagus Acts XVII,
26) says, God hath made Of one blood all
nations Of men for to dwell on all the face of
the earth"
Butwhat with all his vaunted church mem
bership, his affected piety and respect for the
Word Of God-what does the =" Elder mean
by the assertion that negroes are specifically
distinct from the white race ?"-what by in
sisting upon physiological differences be-
tween the white man and the negro ?"-what
by parading the declaration of a respectable
author" as to the difference in the "entire
bodily structure of the negro from the white
man G"-what, pray, does all this mean but
the teaching of the lnfdeL dogma of distinct
races and creations of men ?"-the same dog
ma as contended for by Morton, by Mott and
by Glidden.
Mr.. Charles White, many years ago, in q
series of discourses before the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Manchester, England,
appealed to anatomical facts " in regard to
, the bodily structure of the negro, for the
purpose of disproving DR.. Sam'l Stanhope
Smiths theory of the unity of the human races,
and that the color, &c., of the negro was the
result of climatic influences. So. too, Messrs
Mott and Glidden, in their "Types of Man.
: kind" have labored to disprove the unity Of
the human race, and to show that "the ne
groes are specifically distinct from the white
race. The Elder" for the purpose of up
haldi-e his ssrstem of neoro slare1y. is driven,
Notwithstanding his pious professions, to
adopt>the same skeptical, infdel notion, that
the Eegroes are a distinct race from the ,chae
| race" IF we adopt this notion, then negro
slavery becomes comparatively innocent-in-
wolves no moral turpitude-indeed, resolves
itself into specific grant from the Almighty,
in that to Adam was given Dominion over
every living thing that moveth upon the
earth" (Gen. I. 28,) and it would only raise
and enforce the common duties of humanity,
which man yves to the inferior creation. But
if we admit, as all truly Christian, orthodox
men will admit the unity of the human races,
then, as DR.. S. S. Smith has well remarked
in his very able Essay ON the Causes Of the
Variety of Complexion and Figure Of the HUI
man Species" Up. 244, The principles OF
morals rest on sure and immutable toun-
dations )" whilst, as he says, Up. 243,) the
denial of the unity of the human species tends
to impair, if not entirely to destroy the foun-
dations Of duty and morals, and, in a word,
|
general principles of conduct, or religion, or
even of civil policy could be derived from ma
lures originally and essentially different from
one another; and afterwards in the perpetual
changes of the world, infinitely mixed and
compounded, the principles and rules which
philosopher might derive from the study of
his own nature, could not be applied with GER
tainty to regulate the conduct Of other men
and other natures, who might be of totally
different species, or spring from very dis
similar composition of species. The terms
which one man would frame to express the
ideas and emotions of his own mind must con-
vey to another meaning as different as the
organization of their respective natures. But
when the whole human race is known to COM
pose onlysone species, this confusion and un-
certainty is removed, and the science of hui
man nature, in all its relations, becomes sus-
ceptible of system. The principles of morals
rest on sure and immutable foundations"
In regard to the physiological differences
between the white man and the negro" l
would observe that on this subject doctors
disagree" l have made it my care to inquire
of several wellread and skillful surgeons
whether they have been able, in the course
of their anatomical experience, to discover
any difference between the physiology of the
white and of the black man2" One gentle
man informed me that he had never seen any
such difference, but that the negroes generally
were supposed to have thicker skulls; and
that he once heard an able surgeon say that
the "pyramidalis muscle . is sometimes want
ing in the negro subject; but that in the
course ofhis own personal experience and OBJ
servation, he had never discovered any "phy-
siological difference" between the white and
black subjects.
Another surgeon of twenty years standing,
Of practical experience, and acknowledged
skill in his profession, confirmed the above
statement, and further remarked that he had
often found thinner skulls in black subjects
than in white and as TO the occasional abb
sence of the pyramidalis muscle" in the ne
gro, that was not remarkable, as often, in