The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-03-19

the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solo
mon" Surely this is not the language of in.
feriority, black but comedy as the tents
of Kedar. beautiful as "the curtains OF
solomon This is the inspired represen,
tation of the Church of God, GO the bride,
"the Lambs wife, ''black but comely.'
In the sight of God, therefore, it cannot be
a mark of degradation. Color is produced
by climate, and the African climate tans
the OK, the dog, and the horse black, and
will undoubtedly produce the same result
upon the Asiatic In the twelfth century
the Saracens had a splendid Kingdom at
| Timbuctoo, 10o north of the equator. In
process of time the Kingdom failed, and
passed away, but the people remain with
the regular features, and straight hair of
the Arab, but as black as Ebony. And
there are twenty-five different nations in
various parts of Africa, many of them with
regular features and straight hair, but their
color perfectly black. Climate produces
the color, and habits will account for the
features, of the African. The Dublin Uni
versity magazine informs us that "there
are certain districts in Letrim counties Of
Sligo and Mayo, Ireland, chiefly occupied
by descendants of native Irish, driven from
Armagh and the South of Down, about two
centuries ago. These people, whose an
cestors were well-grown, able bodied. and
comely, are now reduced to an average
stature of five feet two inches, are pot-bel-
lied, bow-leggsd, abortive- and
are especially remarkable for open, or pro-
ecting mouths, the negro type, their dc
pressed noses, and advancing cheekbenes,
showing clearly the result Of lack of cul-
ture'' And all this among people by
nature certainly the equals of their neigh
bors, or of the English. Similar results
may be seen in our own country, much OF
it in one generation.
AS to the present capacity, or condition
of the various nations Of men, all the dit
ference there is may be traced to education
founded on religion. In the days of Julius
Caesar, the Briton was considered by him
intellectually, the lowest in the scale Of
humanity, incapable of being sufficiently
educated i'll one generation to make
decent slave Christianity has wholly
transformed him. And the religion of any
people will furnish an unerrirg index OF
their civilization and greatness. Only in
Christian countries are men truly enlight-
ened.
Before an argument can be drawn from
the condition of a people, as showing their
natural abilities, it must first appear that
they have. and have had, equal privileges
with others. Give Africa the Bible, and
the Christian church. and the Christian re-
ligien and there is great reason to hope
the people will soon stand on an equal ele-
walton with other quarters of the globe
Sierra Leone and Liberia are making rapid
progress in civilization even from their
small beginnings and slender opportunities;
and we may safely look forward to the day
when the song, that echoes from one ex-
tremity of the continent to the other, at
the going down of the sun, may greet its
rising beams with an anthem of proud ex-
ultatien that she stands among the four
quarters of the globe without superior.
Even with the difficulties and obstacles
under which the race has labored, such
bright examples as Tousant L'Ouverture,
DR.. Garnet, Roberts, Cromwell Lanksteh,
Douglass, and host of others, show what
the race is capable of, and give promise OF
IL ,1ae cd
and they are followed the genial culture of
otherraces.
We GENE, then, to ask that the prejudice
and erroneous views heretofore entertained
of the colored people, on account of their
descent from Ham, should be banished
from society.
If we have done nothing more, we have
proved that the popular idea, the idea so
generally entertained, that the colored man
is, and Of right ought to be, inferior, and
occupy an inferior position, because he is
descendant Of Ham, is not only without
foundation, but is the opposite of the truth.
And we confidently expect that all who ex-
anime the subject carefully and without
prejudice will forever abandon the dogma.
But the object we had in view does not
end here. 1t extends to the celored man as
Canaan as regards him. Let him, there
fore, step forth into the arena, prepared to
battle manfully for his rights, and strive
persistently for an equal position with any,
;,,tn T of ,af hat
without equal cultivation he ought to claim
superiority, or even equality: bat feeling
his own manhood and birthright, by dill
gence in business and patient perseverance
in cultivation, hope for and obtain at least
an equality among men.
la 1861 Wendell Phillips delivered lee
ture in New York and Boston ON the life
and character of Tousant L'Ouverture, the
leader in a revolution in St. Domingo
Tousant was born slave on a plantation
in the north of the Island, an unmixed he
gro. his father brought from Africa. All
the advantages he had until he was fifty
was that an old negro taught him to read;
and vet he liberated the Island from the
French masters, ana SlloWea HlHlSei inore
than match for the marshals Of the great
Napoleon.
This article cannot better end than with
the closing paragraph Of that lecture. He
said: g on think me fanatic tonight;
for you read history not with your eyes,
but with your prejudices. But fifty years
hence, when Truth gets hearing, the
Muse of History will put Phocien for the
Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampton
for England, Fayette for France, choose
Washington as the bright, consummate
flower of our earlier civilization, and John
Brown the ripe fruit Of our MONDAY; then,
dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write
in the clear blue above them all the name
of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr,
Tousant L Ouvcrture.'
- A New Orleans wife, left at heme
one evening by her husband, who chad