The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-09-18
THE DImINUrIoN OF A RACE.

THE DIMINUTION OF A RACE
From the Courier Des Etats Unis, a French paper
published in New York.
Humanity is threatened with terrible calam-
ity-the Yankee race is disappearing. BY
Yankee race, we mean the variety of the hui
man kind which inhabits New England, and
which many naturalists, among others the cele-
bratcd Agassiz, have minuteIy described. It is
wrong that we should give to other Americans
the epithet Yankee, which they do not merit
under any head ~.
In short, the Yankee race is Disappearing
Last year We had already experienced some
fears-to-day, doubt is no longer permitted; we
cannot dissiDulate that fearful truth. 10 July,
1865, the Secretary of State of Massachusetts,
published the annual statistics of the deaths
and births, and we remarked with establishment
that an immense majority of new births was due
to foreign parents. Much commentary upon
the fact was INDUCED in at that time, and We
asked ourselves if the virility of the Yankees,
properly called, had diminished in such an
alarming manner, or if the women of Massachu-
setts had voluntarily yielded to foreigners the
care of perpetuating the population.
Mr. Agassiz, who was just on the eve of de-
parting far Brazil, was consulted. He replied
that, indeed, the race did not appear to him any
longer endowed with the vgor which it had
formerly imported from Europe,-that the neck
excessively elongated, and the pale, thin face
we're unequivocal signs of that decline, but that
moral or rather immoral causes Influenced equal
ly upon that disquieting dscrepitude. Mr.
True, Puritan minister, highly esteemed on
account of his fanatcism, was also consulted
He replied by citation from the Bible SO blunt
that modesty prevents US from reproducing 1T.
We waited with impotence for the statistics
IF nc how DIV a
denial of those OF last year. Vain hope-sweet
illusion too soon lost. The maternal strike con-
tinues, as to the ladies of New England, which
is far from being convent The official ex
hibit of births at Boston for the last year pub
shed by the Advertiser of that city, and we
find there the following passage:
"The table of births shows that the number
of children born of parents natives off the United
States is l ,306, making only "a per cent of the
totality of births-this proportion is still less
than that of last year, which was about % per
cent: The number of children born of Irish
parents in 1864 was about 40 per cent; in 1865
it has been 43 per cent. The total number of
children born of parents, foreigners by birth, is
considerable, &c, &C.
In other words, of 1861 new births, 1886
owe their life to foreign parents, and that in the
capital Of New England, the cradle Of all that
is excellent, the city which is offered as model
to the universe! Among the foreigners, the
Irish, who are the most numerous, are equally
the most prolific The consequences which
must result from like state of things cause US
to shudder. In generation or two Massachu-
sets, the land of protestant fauaicism, will be
peopled by catholics. ln generation or two,
the Everetts, the Adams, the Winthrops, the
Summers will be supplanted by the O'Slaugh-
nessys, the McGorhs, the McFodds the Branni-
gars, the O'Calaghans, &c.
Let it not be alleged that the apparent want
of virility on the part of the Bostonians proper
is due to migration; the population born upon
the soil of Massachusetts, is still quadrupie of
that born abroad Where then is the mystery?
Whence comes the fruitfulness Of the European
ladies? To what must We attribute the relative
sterility of the New England ladies? Shall we
| blame the women or must we accuse the men!
How is it that the power or the will to engen-
| der is being lost by people who believe them
| selves superior to all others Grave questions,
which we will not undertake to solve, and which
appertain less, as we believe, to the province of
| the Psychologist than to that of the moralist.
| For We have never heard it said that vows of
chastity are common in New England, but,
| judging from the scandalous law suits which
| arise,-from those which quashed In their
| incipiency, the customs which they Illus
trate, and from the abundance of certain class
of newspaper advertisements, we fear that it
would not be difficult to divine the causes to
which We must in great measure attribute the
| progressive diminution of the Yankees proper,
not only in the cities, but moreover, in the
rural districts, where they are replaced by the
Germans.
| Happily the United States are not embraced
in New England alone, and it is not in the
Western, Southern or Central States that it will
be necessary to found professorships of virility
Massachusetts, treats those States with all the
insolepce of her pride, but better would it be if
she were alive to the dangers which threaten
her.