Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-09-20
Morgan On Manhood


General George Washington Morgan
addressed the Democracy Of Co1um bus,
Ohio, on the 31st ult., for the express
purpose OF proving that persons OF At
r1can descent are not human beings -
and he did prove it to the salts faction
self, as a proud and pure bloOded Cau-
casian. Gen. George Washington Nor
gam we suppose, is of Welsh origin, and
generously comedies, as a Weishmauy
certain privileges to other white folks
Win shorter pediRrees; but be has a
great Digestion TO admitting either the
teeuom pr equality OF mankind Ia
Eenerah His arguments against Negro
23uHteBe are all curious, but some OF
IHtAn are noble end pretty enough to
9U9'e; Why5" he asks, sis the right
whale never found out of the Arctic
'seas? and why is the sperm whale
'never found in the Arctic waters p
"Wby does the gOlden-hued dolphin Of
''the Mediterranean never pass the
s'Straits of Gibraltar, although he
'swims with five times the velocity a
''ship can sail2 Why, DC, &c" And
so the General goes on TO argue that
blacks should not vote In Ohio because
cOndors never leave South A merica -
because the ostrich sticks to Africa -
because there are no elephants in Eu-
rope; because caL1els have two humps,
and Gromedarfes only one, and the poor
canaeleOpards none at all. White men
should rule the world because eagles
rule the air, lions the jungle, aud whales
the sea; because sharks are not shad,
vultures are not doves, and oak trees
are not hickoriess 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
Invented the steam engine2 A white
mani Who conquered the lightning p
A white man To which last we expect
ed the cOroIlary, Who is oftenest struck
by lightning? The black man But
we didn't find &c anywhere in the speech,
although we found almost everything
else-horses, dOlpLins, orang-Outangs,
Columbus, Bushmen, Lord Brougham,
theJews 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 speci men Of the kind to
which it belongs. We have read many
gross of these chronological arguments,
and they are mostly a confused tumble
of half understood scientific facts, with
a mixture OF falslties and OF fancieB.-
They are all based upon the fallacy that
the civilization of a race is impossible
because il never has been civilized, as
If the Egyptian civilization did not pre-
cede the Cfrecian. the Grecian the Ro-
man, the latter that Of the Middle Ages.
There is no race of which it would not
be possible to say bard things; and
there is no race, however degraded, Of
which any honest man of science can
say anything worse than that its time
has not come DahOmey itself is not
more degraded, not more savage, not
more cOarsely supprstitiOus tIan were
the AnRlo-SaXOns in their early Begin
nings. What woul d n cultivated Roman
have said to the writer who predicted
the future greatness Of the Britons p
What would Solomon have said to any
body prOphesying the subsequent con-
dition of his nation What would a
polished Athenian have said if the ora
cles of his land had fOretOld the imperi-
al greatness Of a horde of muscular
settlers uDon the banks Of the Tiber7-
The fate of nations is in the womb of
Time; the destiny of races Is to be de-
termined by causes Of the nature Of
which we can make only etammering
and unintelltgent guesses. Nobody 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 so
phistical; to do so is shamefully to ig-
more the essential notifications which
the race has undergone upon this con-
tinent.
But although we are sometimes be-
trayed into this line of discussion by
the folly Of the George Washington
Morgans, and the Pol1ards, and the rest
Of the gentry who dabble in history,
and go about making n muddle Of all
science, and indeed of all human learn
ing, we always return with relief to the
impregnable position tnRt the American
Idea is that "al men are born free and
equal" Jefferson says they are; Gen.
Washington says they are General
George Washington Morgan says they
are not. Admitting the latter suUdnt to
be right, we claim that then such
thing as Democracy IS impossible in the
United States, and that there must be
9n end or All OUT dreams OF the possi-
bility of Popular Government. Because
the moment you begin TO modify the
dogma, that moment you become in
volved in ineEtricahle con fusion and
decentralization, and open the way
for the Introduction of the monarchical
OF. at least, the atistocratical scheme of
government, for which, we confess, we
are not quite ready.-N. Y. Tribune