The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-11
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Morgan on Manhood

General George Washington Morgan ad-
dressed the Democracy of Columbus, Ohio, on
the 3lst ultimo, for the express purpose OF
proving that persons of African descent are
not human beings and he did prove it to the
satisfaction of the human Democracy and OF
himself, as proud and pure-blooded Cauca-
sion. General George Washington Morgan,
we suppose, is of Welsh origin, and every
Welshman, it is well known, is lineally de-
scended from Adam, whereas other bipeds,
bearing the form of man, come from the Lord
knows who. General George Washington
Morgan generously comedies, as Welsh
man, certain privileges to other white
folks with shorter pedigrees; but ne mas
a great objection to admitting either the Tree
dom or equality Of mankind in general. His
arguments against negro suffrage are all Curl
Gus, but some of them are noble and fretty
enough to quote. "Why," he asks, ''is the
right whale never found out of the Arctic
seas and why is the sperm whale never
found in the Arctic waters Why does the
golden-hued dolphin of the Mediterranean
never pass the Straits of Gibraltar, although
he swims with five times the velocity ship
can sail 7 Why, etc. etc." And so the Gene
raj goes on to argue that blacks should not
vote in Ohio because condors never leave
South America, because the ostrich sticks to
Europe, because camels have two humps, and
dromedaries only one, and the poor came
leopards none at all. White men should rule
the world because eagles rule the air, lions
the jungle, and whales the sea; because
sharks are not shad, vultures are not
doves, and oak trees are not hickories;
because Ethiopians cannot change their
skins nor leopards their spots Jeremiah
xiii, 23). These are the principal arguments
of this most geological General But there is
one other which, in common fairness, we must
not withhold. The Orang-outang of Africa is
black; the orang-outang of Asia is brown
This is what may be called a settler. But the
General has other arguments Who invented
the printing press A white mani Who in
vented the steam engine. white man
Who conquered the lightning3 A white man
To which last we expected the corolary, Who
is oftenest struck by lightning The black
man But we didn't find it anywhere in the
Speech although we found almost everything
else-horses, dolphins, orango-utangs, Colum-
bus, Bushmen, Lord Brougham, the Jews in
Malabar fair-browed Anglo -Saxons, the King
of Congo, the great Democratic party, and the
Bohan Upas.
This speech of the Generals making is an
excellent specimen of the kind to which it
belongs. We have read many gross of these
chronological arguments, and they are mostly
confused tumble of misunderstood scien-
tifc facts, with a mixture of falsities and of
fancies. They are all based upon the fallacy
that the civilization of a race is impossible
because it never has been civilized, as if the
civilization did not precede
the Grecian, the Grecian the Roman,
the latter that of the middle ages.
There is no race of which it would not
be possible to say hard things there is no
race, however degraded, of which any honest
man of science can say anything worse than
that it's time has not come. Dahomey itself
is not more degraded, not more savage, not
more coarsely superstitous, than were
the Anglo-Saxons in their early begin
nings. What would cultivated
Roman have said to the writer who
predicted the future greatness of the Britons
What would Solomon have said to anybody
prophesying the subsequent condition of his
nationY What would polished Athenian
have said if the oraces of his land had foretold
the imperial greatness of horde of muscular
settlers upon the banks of the Tiber The
fate of nations is in the womb of Time; the
destiny of races is to be determined by causes
of the nature of which we can make only
stammering and unintelligent guesses. No
body has right to argue OF the conditions OF
African progress in America from the state OF
progress in Africa itself. TO do so is at once
ungenerous, cruel, and sOphistical; to do so
is shamefully to ignore the essential modifca-
tions which the race has unergOne upon this
continent.
But although we are sometimes betrayed
into this line of discussion by the folly of the
George Washington Morgans and the Pollards,
and the rest of the gentry who dabble in his.
tory, and go about making a muddle OF al
science, and indeed of all human learning, we
always return with relief to the impregnable
position that the American idea is that 'al
men are born free and equal" Jefferson says
they are General Washington says they are
General George Washington Morgan says they
are not. Admitting the latter Savant to be
right, we claim then that such thing as de-
mocracy is impossible in the United States
and that there must be an end of all oul
dreams of the possibility of p7pular govern
ment. Because the moment you begin Il
modify the dogma, that moment you become
involved in inextricable confusion and self
contradiction, and open the way for the intro
duction of the monarchioal, or, at least, the
aristOcratical scheme of government, fol
which, we confess, we are not quite ready.
The Southern Future.
From TIE ". Y. Times
Ahere Is much unnecessary gloom and wall
ing In the South 1t chiefly proceeds from tn,
politicians, who, having always lived by ofic,
or by Notwithstanding, hastened to Washing
ton to obtain dispensation, and thus laboret
to repair the broken hgaments Of marty
These predatory adventurers, deprived q
Office and Of the possibility of Office, utter lon,
howls OF despairing rapacity, and declare IN
South ruined because they are no longer o.
the payroll.
mi 1.