Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-30
COLONIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS.


The literature of all nations abounds
with definitions of human rights. The re-
ligions of all nations abound with beautiful
ethical principles and maxims. But all
history demonstrates that the only rule
which has been followed by mankind from
the earliest times until now. in their deal
ings with weaker peoples, has been the law
of force. This has been very clearly illus
trated in the matter OF colonization. When
ever an advanced nation has found it expe-
dent to establish branches in other parts
of the world, it has adopted the convenient
theory that all races which could not meet
it on an equality in battle should be treated
as inferior creatures, and as having no
rights-not even the right to life-which
the superior race was bound to respect.
This rule has been followed with almost I'M
deviating persistency from the beginning.
To comprehend the real ethical character
of it, however, it will be necessary to put
ourselves for the moment in the position OF
an inferior race. Suppose then that
hitherto unknown race of men, as far in
advance of us as we are in advance Of the
Red Indian, should some day appear with
feet on the American coast. Sup
pose that they should land force armed
with such weapons of destruction
as would place us completely at
their mercy. Suppose they should pro-
coed to appropriate all the territory they
needed. ousting the present possesscrs or
killing them. Suppose that presently they
should be joined by fresh bodies Of their
countrymen, and that they should then
push their way into the heart of the land,
oyerthrowing our civilization everywhere
and substituting their own for it, tramp
ling upon our institutions, destroying our
industries, suppressing our religious OBJ
servances, and enforcing their strange laws
upon us. Should we be disposed to find
excuses for this kind of invasion, or
should we hold, as has been held hereto
fore by all so-called "civilized races that
| the superior advancement of these new
corners entitled them to do as they pleased
with us and ours? Occasionally case &C.
ours in which we get a glimmering percep-
ton of the monstrous wrongs which civil
cation perpetrates in this way, but even
then we fail to realize that there is nothing
new in the principles at work. Take
for example the case of the
Beers of South Africa, whose strug-
gle for independence is just now
involving them in a hopeless contest with
England. These brave and fanatical pio-
neers have certainly better right to the
territory they have acquired than England
can have. They have been holding their
own in the wilderness, maintaining their
religion and their primitive institutions
for something like two centuries
1t is true that they established their colony
in the usual way, namely, by invasion.
At first they were the superior race, and
they acted after their kind Presently a
nation more powerful came on the scene,
and then they pushed forward into the I'M
explored wilderness again. But whatever
rights they may be supposed to have
acquired for themselves, it is evident that
the Kaffirs and Basutos and Zulus and
the other indigenous tribes are the only
real owners of the land, and that so far as
these have been dispossessed they have
been dispossessed without shadow of
justice.