Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1866-04-05

Oi 'I-@AINt lI-l-D NcONI1.
On La,edon's resolutions approving the action
Of those members Of Congress from Penn
Sytod,aia aUho Uoted an .faeor Of the District
Of Columbia Negro Suffrage BIZ, and
instructing the Pennsylvania T. s. Sena
tors 10 support tie same in the U. S. SEN
ate.
(Conc1uded)
THE NEGRO HAS NO CAPACITY FOR PROGRESS.
All, all speak of scope for develope-
ment; of capacity for progress.
Let US turn to the home of the negro.
There land is most fertile, and food for
man is produced with but trifiing labor.
Its vegetable productions are almost spon-
taneous, the domestic animals so essen
tial to the comfort and existence of man,
have always been possessed by them in
greater numbers than in most other sec
tions of the world. For four hundred
years they have been in communication
with Christian nations of western Eu
rope, and from time immemorial with
the nations of western Asia, upon the
coast, and upon the Nile. With greater
opportunities for advancement and progress
than those possessed by the most favored,
they are yet sunk in the lowest depths Of
barbarism. Licentiousness, brutality and
all the heather rites of paganism, are the
distinguishing marks Of the people. No
evidences exist that they have ever been
better Implements of agriculture and for
manufacturing purposes are rare. In all
their broad land no hewn stone or sculp-
tured tablet, no manufactured brick or
monumental structure appears. No arches,
bridges, tombs or pyramids speak of power
in the present or capacity in the past but
back through the vista Of centuries their
land and people present monotonous and
unbroken aspect of stupidity and barbar
ism. The evidences of capacity for pro-
gress, apparent in all the world beside,
are here wanting.
Captain Burton, recent English trav-
cer in Central Africa, in his work thus
graphically portrays the character of the
people:
'The study Of psychology in Eastern
Africa is the study Of mans rudimental
mind, when, subject to the agency of ma
teriaI nature, he neither progresses nor ret
rogrades. He would appear rather de-
generacy from the civilized man than a
savage rising to the first STEP, were 1t not
for his apparent incapacity for improve
ment. He has not the ring of the true
metal the re is no rich nature as in the
New Zealander for education TO cultivate.
He seems TO belong to one of those childish
races which, never rising to mans estate,
fall like worn out links from the great
chain Of animated nature. He unites the
incapacity of infancy with the compliancy
of age the futility Of childhood, and the
credulity of youth with the skepticism Of
the adult and the stubbornness and bigotry
of the old. He has beaten lands and
seas. For centuries he has been in di-
rect intercourse with the more advanced
people of the eastern coast, and though
few have seen European, there are not
many who have not cast eyes upon the
Arab. Still he has stopped short at the
threshold of progress he shows no signs
of developement; no higher and more va
ried orders of intellect are called into
being
This is the evidence of a traveller of
undoubted authority, he too an English
man with anti-slavery proclivities and
desrous of elevating the race And,
sirs, | affirm that whenever and where
ever, in all time past, it has been attemp-
ted to arouse these people as q people TO
developement and progress, the result has
but served to demonstrate the truth of
my position.
OUR OWN EXPERIENCE.
L cite to you your own experience in
the North. | do not desire you 10 take
exceptional cases, either of low grade or
of high grade, but to look at them as a
rule. Deal with this question as states
men, as men who desire the benefit of
their race and Of their country, looking at
the whole subject, not at exceptional ca
ses. As rule, let me ask you, are they
not dependent upon the white man? Are
they not seryile? Can you ever get them
to work unless at the dictation and under
the control Of the white man? Did you
ever learn that negro had invented any
thing? Did you ever learn that he had
improved anything / never have, nor
do believe that any man ever has. They
are idle, improvident and licentious. Of
course, there are exceptions to this, but
the exceptions are rare
THE MULATTO.
My friends, the Senator from Erie and
the Senator from Bradford, both talked |
about the mulatto IN the South, and said |
many of them were sons of Congressman. !