The Placer herald., 1866-08-11
Is Race an Accident.

We hear great deal said by radicals
about the injustice of making "tbe accident
al hue of q mans complexion bis qualification
for the exercise of political power"-and
some who chatter on this subject pronounce
1t absurd to do so-that is, in plain English,
to refuse suffrage to the negro because of the
complexion of his skin. This looseness of
language is indicative of the looseness of
thought and Of ideas Of the people who use
it in connection with giving to the ignorant
bra'n'dwarte! negro, equal political priv
iIeges with those which are The legitimate
property of the Caucasian white man. We
say looseness OF language, because mere com,
plexion has not excluded men, in the South,
ern States from the suffrage privilege at all.
Moreover the hue Of negro's skin is in no
way An accident, but one of the immutabIe.
deermina'e operations of Nature, by no
means the most marked of the radical diff,
eiences that have set him apart from the
outset of human history, rs Of entirely a diff
ferent and inferior order of human genus to
that of the white Indo European, and his
offspring Those who talk thus of the dis.
franchsing effects of color, forget that it is
blood not color, that has settled this oues-
ton, in the Southern States: and persons as
white AS Senators Sumner and Wilson have
consequently been excluded from the zeal.
ously- guarded and valued privileges of the
white man, because it was known that negro
blood mingled in their veins. And this
blood distinction ran through all the laws.
just as the Deity has asserted it, in the mi.
nutest possible way, down to a peculiar char.
acerls'ic discoloralion of the finger nails
The black complexion in the Divine economy
is Tut the exterior badge of an inferior
| coarse, human organization, physical aut
intellectual. 70 the African, of the nepr,
type, WAS assigned ed--not accidentally, but a
a part OF the All wise order Of the creation
"a black skin, of coarse, thick texture
| crisp, woody hair surmounting head and
brain altogether distinct, in all its characters
isics, from those of The white man. Diff
ereutIy formed bones and muscles, arms and
fngernaiIs legs and feet, as well as mental
parts, were given also to the negro from
those that the Almighty, f,r His incruslabe
ends, bestowed upon the white man in so
rich a measure. And those who prate of
the injustice of human society to the negro,
do it in sheer disregard of common sense.
are knaves who do so, some are blind infat.
uated, one-idea enthusiasts, the rest mass
OF seltlsufficient, shallow> ted, ignorant men
and women, ever ready to coucern them
selves with the remote, rather than their
own immediate social and domestic duties
not to speak of abundant evils Just under
their noses! But we fear there is no hone
tor u.s. for relief from these people, or from
their perpetual agitation and din about me-
gro suffrage We may as well resign our
selves to it as an ever willing source of dis
t"rbance, in our industrial system, an ever
present irrlant, or apple of dIscord, and a
clog and obstruction upon all efforts to re,
hablIilae the country,
Men whose leaders and sense bearers in the
discussion of questions of the highest poit-
cal significance, affecting the political llf.
and social order Of millions of the white
race. can speak of the accidental braring of
mere black skin in controlling the reeult,
will never heed reason or anything else, save
the impulse of their prejndices and the teach
ings OF their knavish demagoyues. Slavery
has been abolished, but that has in no way di.
minished the agitation or silenced the voice
of one abolitionist At presen, the Southern
people are helpless; they must endure as pa,
tien:ly as possible, recollecling that man pro-
poses but God disposes. What His purposes
are we know not, in any wide scope; but we
do know that He set impossible barriers be-
tween the negro and the white race-as dis
tnctly marked to day as in the down of ere,
alon-lhal have made the former subordi
nate in all human relations. and will not be
lured or forced to establish an unnatural
equality of the two races among us. Upon
this the Southern people, the bravest soldiers
in the world. are resolved. And vet they
are convinced they are the true friends of the
blacks; those who. if left alone, would do
most to give the negroes that degree of social
and educational culture, and that scope Of
civilization for which they are fitted by ma.
lure. They believe sincerely on the other
hand, the professed friends Of the negro are
those who are comprising his inevitable an,
nihiation as an element of civ ized society.
Memphis Appeal.