Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1866-01-24

never tanned and reduced II 10 Servltude,
as have done all the nations of Asia in
whose country the elephant is indigenous.
Negro literature is an absolute blank
Architecture, in any scientific sense, i
equally blank with letters. The dwell
lings of the negroes, and even the palaces
of the negro kings, are ever Of poor, TEN
porary, perisbable materials. The art of
making bricks, or hewing stone seems to
be unknown to all the purely negro nations
OF Africa. From one extremity of the
land OF the negro to the other, there exists
no monument of enduring materials, no
temple, no tomb, not even bridge. The
single exception consists in mosques, with
walls of mud and matched roofs, and thesp
only in very few localities, where The
negroes have internixed with Arabs, and
adopted the religion of Mahomet. The
religion OF the negroes would be better
named witchcraft, with the wizards for it,
priests. The wars of the negroes are but
the lncursions of the savages, their chief
object being plumber, and the main booty
(man) to be sold into slavery, or offered
up as sacrifice to some demon. On tht
western side of the continent fire arms are
the usual weapons furnished by European
nations but on the eastern the bow and
arrow are mole frequent. The art of war
Is somewhat more skIIful where the Arabs
have intermixed with The natives, and here
alone We find cavalry. Government
among the negroes is the rudrst form O.
despotism, the most absolute and unrt-
strained The negroes of Africa are emf
nently home keeping, unadventurous
race. Neither war; commerce, nor colo
nlzatlon have tempted them to transore,S
their native bounds. The negroes OF Afr
ca, unambiiious and unenterprising, have
Notwithstanding become involuntary colo
nlStS on great scale. 10 America and
It's islands, which before knew no indiopn>
Gus negro race, there now exists probably
not fewer than twelve millions of African
negroes, considerable number of whom
are free, but the maOrty still in the same
state ct slavery in which they were when
first imported. The emancipatpd npcrop,
living among Europeans, still pursued BY
The prescription of race, are under political
ana social disabilities, and looked upon a.
oufcastS; in fact, as a nuisance, of which
The commonwealth ought to get rid. Not
outstanding their emancipation. however.
The Africans of our colonies. increasing
rapidly like the bondSmen of America, in.
crease very little if at all. Their number
are, in fact, understood to be kept down.
not from want of means Of subsistence. but
ny promlScuouS intercourse Of the sexes.
by lntantcide, with corresponding vices.
and neglect of children. Some writers
have, in ny opinion, verv idIy imagined
that the African negro made some ap-
proach to anthropid apes, forming as it
were, line between man and monkey -
fancy as unfoundrd as it would be to IN
sist that Shetland pony was not horse
because it wanted the size and strength Of
London dray horse, or the feerness Of =
racer; or that spaniel in not dog. be-
cause it wants the courage of bull dog
Cloud applause)
The negro is a man. He is one of
many races, of very unequal qualities
lie is equal, in strength and stature. to the
European, but very far below him in the
mental endowment He is superior in
strength, but inferior in intellect, to all
the races Of Asia who have had the same
opportunities of development as himself
he is greatly superior in physical strength
to the red man of America, but intelIectn
ally not his equal, if We are to Judge by
the progress made by the Mexicans AMI
Peruvians, laboring under disadvantages
to which the negro was not subject. A
few freed negroes " the colonies of Eu
ropean nations, but never in their own
country, have occasionally acquired some
distinction in art, science and literature
and well-meaning persons have adduced
Such cases as evidence of high capacity
But the examples have been rare, and the
high attainments not above mediocrity.-
We wonder at them only because they
appear in negro shape, much as the poet
represents superior being as wondering at
the attanments of Newton. (Applause.)