The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-15

from the Pail MAJ Gazette.
How would the ancient Roman common
wealth have carried on its affairs, when it
ruled over races of every variety OF complex
ion and language and propensities, If, in
stead of maintaining with the utmost
jealousy the several ranks Of slaves, freemen,
strangers ''Inunicipals," colonists, half
citizens, and whole citizens, it had admitted
them at once Unfortunately to all political
rights on footing of perfect equality Be
cause that is the problem which the republic
Of the United States, already rivaling in
another hemisphere the magnitude and dig
nifty which ancient Rome reached in this, ap-
pears to have set itself to solve. And yet
Rome had not such inferior varieties of man
kind to deal with as America. Classical
antiquity knew nothing of ''savages." Its
acquaintance with the negro races was
very imperfect. The peoples over which
it ruled we're all, or nearly all,
"Aryan" or Semitic" The haughtiest
Roman, the subtlest Greek, could not vaunt
of any marked physical distinction from the
Gaul or Numidian. There were among that
motley multitude no such contrasts as that,
for instance, between the British colonist and
the native of Australia. Or, let us take
another instance; for our rowing tendencies
now bring us acquainted with the strangest
and darkest corners of the earth. In the
Andaman Islands destiny has brought Euro
and convicts into company with tribe of
aborigines who seem to realize the Darwinian
theory, and form the missing link" "They
have never been able to settle down, writes
an English officer, land consequently have
no dwelling places, nor have formed villages,
or deemed cultivation any source of bettering
their lives. In other words, they are in the
lowest state of humanity, and much re-
semble in actions the race of a monkey.
They see no cause for clothing themselves,
Of laying by for the future, of attaining
knowledge of things foreign, of the princi-
pies of communication, of preventing de-
struction and saving life." What position
are we Europeans to assume, as the age of
democracy advances, towards creatures such
as these? We have discarded the bold phi
losophy Of the Southern whites respecting
the negroes Il say, he amt the child of
Ham, and he amt the descendant of Noah
any more than my horse is. Noah, sir, was
white man, and if he was a white man,
and if he had white wife, as he had, how
could he have niger child" Religion
tells us that they are in one sense our equals.
BY repudiating the practice of slavery, we
have avowed them to be our equals in an
other. Are We to complete the doctrine of
human equality by admitting them to the
suffrage and its attendant rights?
This is a question by no means without
practical difficulty to ourselves. In New Zea-
land, and, as we believe, at the Cape, it has
made its way to the surface, and been as yet
rather evaded than fully answered But it is
of far greater magnitude in the United States.
The original British colonists there, or at least
in some of the States, were slow and reluctant
in admitting even European new comers to
the franchise without some apprenticeship of
delay. But the tide of white immigration
swept all artificial obstacles away Then came
the Wholesale addition of colored freedmen
kl,ar ,;ci x,of
an experiment only; and, while the novelty is
still at the freshest, it has been proposed in
Congress to extend similar political equality to
Chinese and to Indians. This has been re-
iected, or at all events diourned, the most
distinguished partisans of negro rights hav-
ing Joined with some of their own stiffest
opponents in repudiating it. And although
they exposed themselves thereby to the fami-
liar charge of inconsistency, there can be lit
tie doubt they were in the right. Whatever
logic may have to say to the contrary, practi-
cal wisdom must decide against so grotesque
proceeding as the grant of political rights
to the wild Indian, until he has given pledges
to society Gas some few tribes have) by peace
full habits of some generations Red Cloud
and Spotted Tail are scarcely to be held as
yet qualified to elect or to represent. The
ease of the Chinese is no doubt different
They are orderly and intelligent, the children
of an older civilization than ours. Their an
cestors dwelt in sumptuous cities or in richly
cultivated plains when those of the Puritan
fathers wandered the forests, tattooed with
blue patterns. They are at all events, it
might be said, superior to the negro. But then
they are inferior to him in one respect; they
have not learned as he has, however imper-
fectly, to share in the ways and feelings of
the great white maj ority They are as yet
strangers, not in descent only, but in their
whole course of life, religious and social.
There is therefore no hardship to them, and
no abandonment of principle, in requiring of
them considerable amount of preliminary
apprenticeship.
Meanwhile, the ''almond-eyed Mongoliaps'
are steadily winning their way to citizenship,
however delayed, by persevering dogged in
dustry, and the art of rendering them
selves indispensable. In California they
form an important section of the popu-
lation, and are fast accommodating them
selves to the habits of the rest of its miscel
laneous inhabitants Even the religious
difficulty constitutes no very great difficulty
with them. Many Chinese stick to the follow
ing of Confucius, bat numbers are Voltairiant
and cesmopolites, and a good many Chris
tians. Within these few months, a Chinese
native preacher, converted since his arrival
drew large congregations in the streets O
San Francisco. But they are no longer con
fined to the shores of the Pacific. They hav,
alrady begun to invade the Eastern seaboard
and to meet and underbid our European emi
grants on the very coast of the Atlantic. Thi
curious revolution in human affairs is likely t.
take place from two causes. In the South, tn
white landowners cannot get rid any NOR
than our West Indian planters, of the idea O
trying experiments in the way of coolie i'm
migration, or quasi slavery experiment.