The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-31
Red, yellow, and BLACK,


Red, Yellow, and Black.
From The Times.
There is no other part of the world that
presents the spectacle seen in America of
diverse races living together in equality, so
far as their several natures permit, or that
offers so many solutions at once of the ques-
tion-What becomes of weaker race brought
into close relations with a stronger one
Coming as Europeans, we intruded on the
aborigines, introduced the Africans, and are
now admitting the Asiatios gathering all
varieties of men in one field of activity under
one form of government To be sure, under
that Government the Indian is an anomaly,
the Chinese a novelty, and the Negro puzzle;
and for a long time the nation was so busy in
laying its own foundations that it was almost
left to accident to harmonize the three colors
and fix the place and care for the rights of
each separate people. But when negligence
was found at length to work so i'll that civil
war forced us to choose between destruction
and justice to one of these races, the warning
was not lost bidding us give more heed to our
dealings with the others.
A strong hand is now needed to check the
brutal eagerness of frontiersmen for war of
determination against the Indians. The ap-
pointment of Commissioners to treat with the
remaining tribes for their settlement in
selected localities away from the intended
three-fold track of travel across the Continent
is a step in the right direction, and will go
far, if faithfully carried out, to atone for the
long series of violences and impositions that
have made the management of the Indian
Bureau disgrace to the nation. Even if COM
pulsion must be used, it is better that they
should be fOrcibly kept at peace than slaugh-
tered in war. The Indians understand our
power-they have long felt the rising tide
from East West, and South forcing them back
to the mountain fastnesses. 1t is not probable
that they will reject the solemn embassy of
the nation, and choose rather to be destroyed
in detail than to remain tranquil in regions
wide enough for nomad existence during their
lives, whatever may become of their posterity.
The aborigines can never rise into very
useful or valuable part of our population.
The experiments heretofore made with success
in domesticating them to use a phrase sug-
gested by their half animal nature, have been
applied to limited numbers, closely surrounded
by the whites, and under the near supervision
of State Governments. The Western tribes,
numerous, remote, and settled in regions wide
and wild enough for the continuance of their
rowing habits, will never be anything better
than Bedouins. Even on the suppositien that
they can learn to refrain from war among
themselves, passing from the hunter condi-
ton to the pastoral state, they are not
likely ever to own much taxable property,
especially if the present legal eXemp-
tion of their lands from taxation be continued,
still less to contribute by agriculture or in
dustry to the wealth of the nation. Whether
they are left to enjoy their own rude modes of
! government or are made individually respon-
sible as citizens to the general laws of the
land, their nature will remain the same. Pro-
ducers never, always consumers, our highest
success in controlling them will be to prevent
their laying hands on the property of others,
and restrict their consumption to the game
that nature still provides in those parts which
the dominant race can spare them of the land
over which their wasteful range was once un-
limited. At the best, they will become kind
OF half-breed hangers-on to civilization, and a
genuine stole of the woods will be as rare a
sight to the next generation as pale face once
was among the aboriginal forefathers. The
first to possess this continent, they will be
also the first to disappear from it.
. The Chinese immigration is an unlocked
for phenomenon. An ancient empire, whose
steadiness was the reflection of the quiet and
unenterprising temper of its subjects, crowded
to the point OF starvation, but never before
overfowing, so settled in Oriental pride and
stagnant isolation as to own nothing in COM
mon with the progress of modern days, and to
disdain any share in their improvements, sud
denly pours eastward a multitude which re-
verses the accustomed current of migration,
|
of national development. These newcomers
are singularly patient, industrious, and man
ageable; as labOriOus as the Irish ana more
ingenious than the Germans. They are far
less likely to do than exposed to suffer wrong.
Their personal qualities will supply certain
elements in the formation of the Pacific COM
munities which the lavish, impetuous Ameri-
can nature would have left out. AS our
direct Cathayan commerce, now just born,
grows to maturity, their interests and connec.
tions will aid immensely in strengthening it,
The home merchants of China are among the
most princely merchants of the world; they
are kindly disposed towards Americans, who
have never drudged nor bOmbarded them
much, never sacked their palaces like the
French, nor called their rebels Christian
brothers, like the English. Many of them arr
men Of vast wealth, and of controlling infu
ence throughout the East Indian world These
are the merchants who, acting through thu
establishments of their countrymen on thu
Pacific coast, will pour the wealth of Tornat
and Tldore into the lap of San Francisco, anC
= perhaps unseal for us the reservoirs OF coine(
q SILVER that have been acoumulating for ages il
;, Smna to return thus, by a strange circuit, t
o the region whence it came.
let tne Chinese will never be absorbed int
. Inns natlon. They win remain among us, bu
!, noV OF us, as Ah-wang, the cigar-vender, afte
% Ten years wear OF Bowery costume, is still a
q distnguishable as on the day he landed froI
his Junk. There is an instructive repuRnanc
d between the Western and Mongolian races
It very quantity insisted on bv Be Quincy
~ which may be occasionally cot over I'm th
i case OF the very pretty Canton damsels ON til
n sampans or hower-boats, but which win pre-