The Portland daily press., 1864-04-21
Practical "Miscegenation.,

Practical ''Miscegenation.''
The Advertiser contains a long and elabo-
rate article on "miscegenation" - mixing Of
the black and white races-written with more
candor than has usually been exhibited by
that paper in treating upon matters of this
kind but still sufficiently unfair TO render
notice of il not impertinent. The writer takes
the ground usually assumed by pro-slayery
democrats, that those who are opposed to ne
gro slavery and in favor of the equal civil and
political rights of all men irrespective of
color, would encourage the mixing of the
black and white blood of the nation by means
of intermarriages or the family relation; and
that universal freedom will tend to produce
such result and TO back up this allegation
against the opponents of human slavery, he
quotes at length from late speech of Mr. S.
S. Cox, of Ohio, in the national House of Rep
resentatives. He would have afforded more
proofs of candor had he given with Mr.. Cox's
speech, the perfectly overwhelming reply of
Mr.. w. ID. Keley,of Pennsylvania which.he
showed from official tables, that where slavery
exists there is to be found a very large pro-
portion of mulattoes, of various shades of
color while in the free states the percentage
Of mixed persons among the people of color
is very small, not being more than eleven or
twelve per cent. in New Jersey, though in the
chiyalrous Palmetto state - the land of the
cavaliers and of gentlemen per Sc - this per-
centage runs up as high as seventy-fve or
more.
1t seems to us those who contend that "ms-
cegenation," or the mixing OF the races, can
be either promoted or prohibited by law, take
very imperfect and superficial views of human
action. There are some things beyond the
control of law, and this is one Of them. A
law to regulatelta likes dislikes, afiinties,
judgment, opinions, feelings, sensibilities,
affections, moral attributes, or religious inn
pulses, emotions or manifestations, would
have but little effect in accomplishing the OBJ
ject aimed at.
We doubt IL any amount of law in favor of
intermarriages between the blacks and whites,
would increase the number of such marriages,
and we all know that laws to prohibit such
marriages have signally failed to accomplish
the object desired. The truth is, marriage
is or should be controlled by the taste, the
affections, and the judgment. 1t doubtless is
SO controlled-at least by the taste-in nearly
all cases where the reprehensible motives of
ambition, pecuDiary interest, or family pride
do not come in to control the free choice. We
do not propose to discuss the wisdom or poll
cy Of laws prohibiting the inteimarrisge of
blacks and whites; something may doubtless
be said on both sides OF such question. The
question before us is not one of marriage,
but of the mingling of blood and the fact is
patent in the faces of thousands and tens of
thousands, in nearly every slave state, that
marriage has no necessary connection with
such process. Taste and inclination do the
work independent OF marriage and in the
slave states this taste and inclination have no
need to be mutual. for with party all OBJ
lection or resistance Is vain. We have prdc-
ticdi "miscegenation," whether we think well
Of 1t or otherwise, and it might be profitable
for the political economist 10 consider whether
it is better that this practical fact should be
Legitimate than legitimate.
We have said that marriage is a thing of
taste. Occasionally among free, unconstrained
people, white woman will marry a black
man aud Uice uersa but these are the excep-
tions TO general rule. For one we do not
feel the necessity of prohibatory law TO
guard oarself or our family from such allan
ces. We do not believe the editor Of the Ad-
vertiser feels the ssity of such law 10
hedge about his or his family's liberty in this
regard. He has no taste for such alliance.
He has no fear that any one of his children
dearer to his heart than life itself = will con-
tract such an alliance. The intimation that
any enactment is required TO guard his rela-
tiyes or his intimate friends from family
alliance with person of African blood, he
would doubtless regard as gross indignity.
The truth is, where taste, judgment and inci-
nation, on both sides are left free TO contract
alliances or to reject proposals for those of
an unnatural character, there can be very
little danger OF "miscegenstion" prevailing TO
such an extent as seriously 10 affect the in
terests, the prosperity or the moral standing
OF nation. In France and England, where
the law makes no distinctions based on color,
aud where the road to advancement is open
to both races alike, and where the marriage
door opens alike at the touch of the black and
the white, we are not aware that the African
blood is any less pure than in those states of
our Union where the mixing process is pro-
hibited by the most stringent laws.
But it is stupendous fsllacy 10 pretend
that Liberty = universal civil Liberty = is
prejudicial to pure morality, or favorable TO
those customs aud practices which are all
ofense to good taste. Facts disproye all such
theories, and show that where tho truest lib
erty is enjoyed there all the virtues find the
most congenial soil; and taht religion finds
the truest and most spiritually -mnded wor-
shippers. II is only in state of slavery, OF
bondage, that good taste is overruled, and
"miscegenation" finds the largest deyelope-
ment. Make woman the slave OF brutal
master, take from her the protection of law,
disarm her Of the power of resistance, and no
matter whether it be the coarse-featured black
woman in the power of southern slaye-hol-
der, the fair-skinned, bue-eyed Saxon woman
In the lodge of North American savage, or
the Circassian slave in the harem of Turk