Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-01-07
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY {, 1885
Tho Elements Of Population.

The Elements OF population.
The logic OF the 0ne-IIoss Shay still
asserts itscH among those northcrners
who pretead to fear or rather to forcsce
the differentiation Of the South. It
has again and again been shown that
the census Of 1870 was totally unreli-
able in SO far MS II purported to give
the population Of the southern States,
and. consequently, that the rapid in
crease Of the negro population which
that census. taken in connection with
the last census, seemed to show to have
occurred was an increase on paper and
not in the cabins in which the negroes
live.
The Authorization Of the South is
IN impossibility. Why have not the
northern States been Africanized du-
ring the generations which have elapsed
since the emancipation Of their slavess
Because the inferior race cannot expel
the superior race.
So loig as the southern States are
sparsely settled, and every negro fam
lily can obtain free Of cost cabin to
live in and as much fuel as they can
burn in winter, the negroes will in
crease in numbers rapidly--perhaps
more rapidly than the whites. But
whenever the struggle for life-fcr sub
sistence--for place to sleep and for
food to sustain life--shall begin in earn
est, the negro will of course 60 to the
wall.
All statistics which initiate against
. law Of nature may be discarded as ut
terly worthless. Go to New York city,
where few generations ago slavery ex-
listed, and where negroes were engaged
in all the occupations of life, walk
down Broadway, take passage on the
eleyated roads or the strcet-cars, enter
the hotels, ride in the hacks, inspect
fhc drsys, the express wagons, and you
will encounter only here and there a
negro. Wewere once told in New York
that it would probably cost a negro his
life il he should undertake to drive
drsy on Broadway. We do not know
how true this statement was. But
1br some reason or other the negro
docs not show himself in the North.
Ihe process Of Africanizing that section
cf our common country does not appear
to be bright and it does seem to us to
be too plain for argument that these
millions of northern people are going
to press southwark and produce here in
the course Of a few generations the
same state Of things which now exists
in that region. First Delaware, then
Maryland, then Virginia and West
Virginia, will repeat the experience Of
Massachusetts, Connecticut. Rhode
Island, New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania. We mean that for some
: reason tho negro will gradually show
less aud less popular strength rela-
lively TO the whites, and in the course
Of one or two hundred years will be in
the southern States named above,--let
us say will be in Virginia just what he
now Is in New York and Massachusetts,.
And il in Virginia, hundred years
hence, such are to be his circumstances,
then there is no reason to doubt that in
all the rest Of the southern States the
same fate viii eventually overtake him.
The Indian is superior to the Negro,
but even he has made poor stand
before the advancing hosts of Caucasian
pioneers and their followers.
Again: There is no North or South
in this matter Of population. There is
no dividing line between the States in
which the negroes are expected to in
crease more rapidly than the whites
and the States in which the whites are
expected (by visionary mem to increase
more rapidly than the negroes. Where
j. the lines Is Virginia 10 be Afri-
canizeds Oh. no! The whites Of
the North are pressing downwards too
heavily. Surely, then, North Carolina
wal in few years be circumstsnced
Just as Virginia now is. Next will
come South Carolina. And SO on to
the Gulf of Mexico.
Look at the figures Of the last census.
In 1880 the total negro population Of
the United States was 6,5S0,793, and
the total white population was 43,402,-
976. Where Is the increase from these
whites to 60 tor Think, too, Of the
contrast between the opportunities Of
che two races.
II would be as easy to show that the
three hundred and fry millions Of Chi
mesa will oycrrun the world in few
hundred years as 70 show that the ne
eroes will overrun the southern section
u the United States. The supposition
Il based upon false foundation. There
are TOO many factors omitted in work
ing out the problem.