Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-09-11
GAINESVILLE s.. SEPT. Il, 1875.


orgins of yankee ciyiliza.ion-the en-
bodiment of negrophilism, spiritual
ism. freelovism and "sich'-ques-
tions the wisdom of emancipation and
hints at the inefieacy of the laws en-
acted for the purpose of enforcing civ
il and social equality between the two
races, so recently holding the relations
of masters and slaves. In spite of the
signal failure Of the experiment of
emancipation. without previous prepar-
alton. in the West Indies, our puritan
philanthropists believed in the magic
power Of political liberty to improve
upon this handiwork of God and to
assimilate the highest and the lowest
species Of the genus homo" 1t is
however, becoming apparent to the
more rational fanatics that. in the de-
lusive hope Of elevating the African
TO the level of the Anglo Saxon,
curse has beeninficted upon both, and
the question now being raised is what
shall be done with the passive victim
Of a mischievous delusion? Like his
brother in Jamaica, he is fast lapsing
into normal barbarism and, in his de-
scent, is lowering the standard OF
Christian civilization and bringing dis
grace upon that spirit of liberty which,
it was asserted, his emancipation would
enlarge unit. it embraced every race
of mankind OF emancipation, in the
British West Indies, Alison, in his
history of Europe. says:
"He"-Lord Brougham-"was the
uncompromising foe, through life, of
West India slavery, and the generous
advocate of the poor negro's right;
aud yet by urging on the fatal step of
immediate and uaprcpdred enaancipa-
ton, he has proved his worst enemy.
and thrown back the sable inhabitan;s
of the Antilles centuries in the path
of real sud lasting improvement"
What is undeniably true of Jamai-
ca, must prove equally true of the
United States, because the conditions
are the same. The slave owners there,
as here, were of the Anglo-Saxon
race, and the slaves in both cases we're
Africans. The intelligence impaired.
in both countries, by the example and
training of the owners, was the only
civilizing influence to which their ma
ture is capable of responding, and the
withdrawal of which is necessarily fol-
lowed by a relapse into their normal
condition. This degeneracy will be more
or less rapid in proportion 10 the rela-
tive numbers of the races-more rapid
in Jamaica, because the whites are few
and the negroes Overwhelmingly nu-
merous-slower here. because the re-
lations as to numbers is reversed,
and the influences just mentioned
will continue to be felt, though
in constantly decreasing ratio; but
the final result in both countries must
be the same, unless the negroes eau be
protected against the pernicious ex-
amples aud precepts of the Radical
party and left to the guidance of the
Southern whites who, alone, appreciate
their capacity for Improvement and
understand the appliances whereby
their lapse into barbarism may be
postponed, if not ayerted. The prob
lem of their future is not likely to be
solved by Puritan negrophilism, which
suggests colonization as the only solu-
tion-forgetting that the shortest road
totheir primitive condition is to throw
them upon their own resources. Sep
arated from higher intelligence, their
true inwardncss" will assert itself.
and their native Incidence aud i,nprov-
idence soon plunge them into the NOR
al and intellectual darkness of their
native jangles. Radical reconstruction
has cursed them deeply, and if they
are to remain in our midst, the best
thing that can be done for them is 10
shield them from the wild experiments
of a mawkish puritan philanthropy
and, AS citizens, leave them to the pro-
lection of the laws, honestly and i'm
partially administered, without regard
tn color. -as..as .He