Middletown transcript., 1869-05-08
The Indian, the African, and the A.,a.,c

1t is difficult problem which this coun
try has to solve to settle the status Of these
three classes of people within her borders.
In reference to the aborigines, new pol
icy has been attempted by the present ad-
ministration 1t was probably suggested
to the new President by the recollection
OF his reading of Penn's treaty with the
Indians. Penn was Quaker, and man
aged to drive good bargain with the red
skins, getting large strip of their land
for few Firearms, some tobacco. rum.
and few bits of red cloth. He did not
60 to war with them, but preferred to
cheat them, which this '.just' man sue
ceeded in doing, retaining their good will
the while. This was certainly better than
besottipg and numbering them, which
seems to- have been the policy pursued ev-
er since, and millions of money have been
expended in fighting them, removing them.
and in otherwise dealing with these chill
dren of the forest, whom we have driven
out from before us, and whose wrongs cry
to heaven for vengeance against their op-
pressors. Our Indian affairs have been
the fruitful source of official villainy. cor
ruption and plunder, and our agents and
officials have made ''good thing" for
themselves out Of the opportunities for
stealing which they have afforded. Gen
eral Grant has attempted reform in this
matter, and has turned over our Indian
affairs to the Quakers. How he may sue
coed we are unable to say, but he is at
least entitled to credit for good intentions.
IL is alleged that he has been imposed upon
by some of the veriest scoundrels of the
Indian ring" who have assumed the
Quaker garb for the purpose, and that
these Aminidab Sleeks and broad-brimmed
Obadiahs talk thee and thou with the fa-
cility of veritable Quakers That the In
dian can ever be made civilized and use
full citizen under any instrumentality that
may be employed for the purpose, we doubt.
A few, a very few, have been reclaimed,
but the great mass Of them will continue as
at first in nomadic savagery, until they be-
come extinct as people; and not till then,
we apprehend, will they cease to give us
annoyance, and cease to be burden upon
the country through the abuses which have
crept into their management.
Modern fanatics and pseudo -philanthro-
pists have attempted to elevate the semi
barbarous African into the condition of
ga man and brother" These day dream
ers succeeded at last in engrafting their
ideas into the policy of powerful politi-
cal organization, and through the aid of
war and adventurous circumstances have
put their project in the course of expert
nAeBt. The negro is free and partially en-
franchised, and may become fully invested
with the privileges and immunities of citi-
zenship. But with as little facility as the
Ethiop can change his skin, can he assume
the powers and capacities of the Caucasian,
or live in contact with him, except in a
subordinate sphere. This fallacy of negro
elevation will have its day and subside,
and the negro himself, like the Indian,
will ultimately disappear from our midst
Bat before that comes to pass, he will be,
as he has siready been, the source of a
vast amount Of evil and irritation. His
only refuge is his native Africa. He must
choose between migrating thither, or ex-
tinction. To become incorporated with
this people, upon terms of civil and social
equality, is an impossibility, which will
be demonstrated sooner or later. The laws
of nature, the DEGREES of destiny, will not
be reversed at the bidding of crack Drained
fanaticism; and the wild dreams of these
social and political "reformers" will crum-
bic into airy nothingness ultimately, and
the negro himself will be the sufferer
through this unwise intermeddling with
him under the pretext of his amelioration
The Chinese, like the African, has beer
brought hither to supply great need
that of labor,-in this young and growing
country. Over seventy-fve thousand Of
them are'now to be found upon the Pacific
slope, and they are making their way tc
the Atlantic States, and many of them are
already engaged upon the sugar plantations
of Louisiana, where they are taking the
place of the negro. Is not John China
man, also ga man and brother ?" Ant
will not the philanthropists be looking af
ter his civil and social status? VIII he
not also be inducted into the rights and
privileges of citizenship and clothed with
the power of the ballot? Philanthropy
can make no distinctions of race in the