The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-07-03
THE sELF-ELEvATING ARGUMENT
ftke eg EXAMINED cF a TgtA


of the negro race-those who would keep this
race in bondage and degradation-that for
sixty centuries the African has remained in
his debasement, mere animate and sentient
vegetable, without progress, and without sign
OF restlessnessf under his degradation; ana
from this assumption it is argued that ne Is !
incapable of high Or even ofmedium eleva- 4
ton in the scale of civilization, and was,
therefore, designed by his Creator 70 be the
mere slave to the superior races.
This seems now to be the generally accept
ed doctrine Of the Democratic party. There 4.
are EXCEPTIONS how numerous we pretend
not to know, but probably no more numerous
than is requisite to, prove the rule, as all gen.
eral rules are said to have their exceptions.
fs's Phe following extract of an article headed
"Let the Negro, Alone clipped from one Of
the most liberal and humapely disposed Dem ]
oeratic presses of the country, is perhaps the
mildest form in which this argument is put
! Referring to the question Of the suffrage of
the emancipated negroes ofstheI South, the
Writer says .0GIaIIdO8 0Nh HAa
..s,n Their capacity for improvement remains to
be tested. Dogmatic assertions of the high
capacity or of the perpetual inferiority of the
negroes are utterly worthless in default of suf-
ficient experience Itiss only certain that the
Africans on their natipe soil hare uegetdted
for centuries soithout perceptible Improve
g nlent, and that under masters of European
blood on the continent and Islands Of Araeri-
ca, they have attained to a civilization which
qualities them for the humber departments
Of civil and military life. When the enanci-
pated slaves of the South have been educated
TO the eapability of voting inteligently, when
they have learned to know what franchise
really is, and when they are able to UNDER
stand and appreciate political privileges it will
be quite time enough to urge the question Of
suffrage in their case. Meanwhile the best
service that their Northern friends can render
them, Is to let them alone politically, and di1
rect their attention exclusively to the mental
and moral improvement they SO much need. =
The, above, considering the source from
which it eTnanates, is moderate and tolerably
fair in its tone, and the usual inference-that
the negro IS incapable of marked improve
ment--isnot forced upon the readers attention;
on the contrary, the writer says: 'Dogmatic as
sertionso of the high capacity Or Of the perpetual
syeriority Of the negroes are worthless in de-
fault Of sufficient experience There is here
revealed an apparent willingness to give the
negro one more cnance 70 shaw~ his capabili-
ties; whether he islcapable Of being .~ssed 10
the digaity and Intellectual and mogal level OF
New York trough, Whose right to vote
none dispute, and which even our writer de-
tends, and whose suffrage he has profited by,
and perhaps hopes to do SO again-or whether
he iS,a mere locomotive vegetable, without
feeling without sense, without the ordinary
knowledge of good and evil, whose salvation is
hopeless in this world, and in the world to
come depends upon whether he is in fact the
- actual possessor of a human soul The inn
plication is quite plain, we think, notwith-
standing this apparent. fnapartiabty, that the
negro cannot come up out of the "horrible
pitt unless thegood angelssof American slave
holders, with whip and branding-iron, scourge
and burn him out of his filth and wretched-
ness, ana coerce nhf inse t1le saolao.s hl..as...
i of plantation beatitudess 5a 1la Aso
"The AfiicGns on their natiUe soil haze
.'uegetdted for centuries Without perceptible
Improvement II a8sl szsas0 = nshas X +.
This seems to be the first verse of the first
:. chaptero Of the Democratic, Genesis, and the
g last verse of the last chapter of Democratic
Revelationss IL is the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end; or, to use the words Of
Gen. w. b. S. Moor-a Democratic High Priest
after the order Of Buchanan and Lecompton--
in 1859, cit is the Apostles creed and the
Lords prayer of the Democratic Faith" As
we only quote the exact words of Gen. Moor
in the Democratic Convention Of the year
named, in relation to the "Cncinnati Plat
form. we trust we shah not be accused of ir-
reverence, or of an improper use of sacred
illusions Gen. Moor was arererentznpI
We think it may be safely asserted; that the
sable jewellers in Africa are not the only peo-
pie who have revealed the need Of some ex-
tranepus hand to lift them out of the pit into
which the fortunes of creation and the distri-
81 button of races over the face of the earth had.
dropped them. 1t is very sure that the ancient
81 Brttons--whose blood courses in New England
veins-for centuries negotiated on their native
"soil without perceptible improvement" and
~ the evidence will never be forthcoming suffi-
Z Gent to show that, extraneous influences
aside they would to this day have emerged
from the iron barbarism in which they groyeled
Morris it certain that Northern Europe would
not have s'yegetatedD for centuries longer than
it did, in ignorance, blood and brutality, had
the more refined and civilized NATIONS South
of them acted towards them as the Demo-
Gratis of to-day demand that we should act to-
b wards III neoroes-.slet them alonens
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