The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1865-08-24
Irish AntipatEiy 10 the Negroes

Among our ''lcttcrs from the People"
We find the following sentence, which IA
vorably expresses the average Irish scnti>
ment at present Oh what they term 'negro
equality"
"As for the negro, We Go not believe that ma
ture ever made him tie equal Of the Irishman,
and do not intend to have HIM fly into the face
OF providence. Res! ectfully, yours.
"SHAMEL MCGUIRE"
Let us analyze this sentence and see
how many grains of truth and wisdom it
contains, and how many Of foolishucss.
l. 1t speaks of what nature has made
the negro and the Irihman. Remember
that neither the negro nor the Irishman
are i'll state Of nature. As nature has
not altogether had the making of either of
them, bnt education, laws, climatic influ>
enccs, wars, arts and industries have help
ed make both, the question what nature
made them is one that no man can answer.
since nature did not make them If bv
their being made You refer to the act of
creation, then the Irishman's Bible as
well as the Protestant Bible tells him that
God made of one blood all nations of men
that dwell OF the face Of the earth" The
Roman Catholic chusch also sanctions this
principle of the unity OF the Ia C by her
ancient Papal Bulls and dccrces Of coun-
ellis against African slavery, and by ad,
hitting negroes to her communion, and to
her priesthood and BishOprcks, as she
does extensively in Africa. History teach
es us that God made (not a negro nor an
lriShman butt MAN, and that man devel-
6ped into the negro in Africa and into the
lrshman in ireland, but that the same
royal blood of a common manhood flows
in the veins Of both, unchanged except so
far as sixty centuries of climatic and bis
toric influences have changed it.
III. If by denying that "nature has
made the Negro the equal of an Irish
man., is meant that the negro child born
to-day has not cerebral development or
brain equal to that of the Irish child, that
hence he is not susceptible of an equal de-
gree of intelligence and education, then in
the same sense, nature has not made any
two Irishmen or any two hnman beings,
equal. This therefore is no more ground
of objection by an Irishman against a
negro, than by Irshmen against each
other.
III. If by denying that "naturc ever
made the negro the equal of an Irishman.' .
it is meant that he is never in any respect
his equal, the statement is simply absu:d
The negro, at the avcra &c, is equal to the
lrishman in the important physical quail
ties of hight OF person. breadth of chest,
fullncss of muscle, adipose matter, appetite
aud digestive powers, strength, longevity,
and endurance, whether of labor, dssipa-
ton or privation. Both the Irishman and
the negro are superior in most of these
respects to the American or English.
~ If by denying that ''nature ever
made the negro the equal of an Irish
man" it is meant that i'll all mental, moral
and religious qualities the negro is inferi-
or, then we say the statement is philoso-
phically impossible on its face and ridicu
lous, for many of these qualities are the
antipodes of each other, and no one per
son can excel another in each of the two
opposite qualities. Thus pride and hui
mility are mental qualities, so exactly
opposed to each other, that if the Irish
man exccls in one the negro must excel
in the other. Soft the Irshman excels
the negro in cunning the negro must cx~
eel him in simplicity. If the Trshman
exccls the negro in combativcncss the
negro must exec; him in meakncss and
long suffering If the Irishman is more
devoted than the negro to Catholicism,
the negro must excel the Irishman in de
votion to Professionalism. Ii the Irishman
counts his beads with fervor that ne
gro does not understand, it follows that
negro would shout louder at a camp meets
ing. If the Irishman is more indcpend-
ent to his equals and supcriors in social
station, it follows that the negro must be
more obsequious and polite to them IF
the Irsbman prizes more highly than the
negro the home across the ocean from
which he or his ancestors came, the negro
is more exclusively devoted to the inter