The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1889-06-06

y. +. MEAD. Editor.
THURSDAY JUNE 8. 1850
Obstacles to the Civilization Of Saw.
age Races Of 1sn.
Content marks the savage; discon-
tent the civilized man. The learned
and pious Count de Gobineaux lays
down this proposition:
1.-THE civilization originated by q
race Is the clearest index OF its char
acter-the mirror i'm which its princi-
nal features are truthfully reflected.
In other words. every race capable Of
developing q civilization will develop
one peculiar to itself and impossible
to every other"
Five thousand years Of observation,
history and experience has demon
strated the truth Of this observation.
In all this time history has failed to
record single instance Of one race
having voluntarily accepted either
the civilization or the religion Of an
other race; or Of a race having re-
tanned an enforced civilization after
the hand of compulsion was removed.
The intellectual and moral charac-
ter Of the different races Of men is as
permanent and Interchangeable az
their physical type. Civilization and
barbarian are the natural conditions
Of races. We can no more tempt .
race out Of itself or elevate 1t above
its natural character and condition
than we can alter its typical COM
plexion.
1t is now nearly thirty years since
m eminent anthropologist Of Europe,
Luke Burke, threw out the following
challenge which thus far has met no
attempt to question its correctness:
Let there be pointed out any one
nation or race which once existed In
barbarous state and subsequently
raised itself to civilization. Whers,
We ask, are the evidences Of univer-
trace back the history Of the past,
all human diversities. Such are the
lessons of universal history; lessons
which speak not Of human equality
and unity, but of great and perlna-
nent diversities among mankind"
To the same effect we might quote
Rudolph, Steffens, Berard, Ramusat,
Burmeister, Giebel, Knox, Norton
Agassiz and, indeed, any other equal
" great man in the whole world Of
scientific authority.
II reliance may be placed in the
records history, we may know posit-
lively that civilization in whatever
part OF the universe found, has come
from the Caucasian race.
The Rev. John Mitchell, an emf
nent Scotch divine, in prize essay
on .'The Best Means of Civilizing the
Subjects Of the British Empire in In
dia,n said: Whatever is true of them
1t one period is equally true ut an
other"
The Dutch subjugated the natives
Of Java at least nearly a century ago,
but not the slightest progress has
been made in their civilization. The
same may be said Of Spanish rule in
Mexico and the South and Central
American States. The savages have
not been elevated; but the Spanish
blood by admixture with the savage
race has been degraded until the en-
tire type Of the peoples more nearly
represent the aborigines than their
Spanish conquerers.
Then, il we look at North America,
we find that all our efforts to civilize
and Christianize the Indian is truly
summed up in the following words Of
agreat writer of the present century:
1.-The feeble remnants OF these
wretched tribes are fast disappear
ing, and disappearing as uncivilized
and as uncivilizable as their ancest-
OFs."
The same melancholy failure is
found in the attempt to civilize the
Gauranes Of Paraguay; all, except a
few half-breeds, having returned to
savage life. The Caribs have been
totally exterminated in the attempt
to civilize them; SO have the Tasman-
lans and the native Australians are
rapidly going the same way. The
attempts to improve the Hottentots
tells the same story; Knox says OF
them: without arts, without reljg.
Ion, and without civilization OF any
kind, for how many centuries have
they occupied their kraale, content
to live and to perish like the beasts
Of the field. leaving no name behind
them that such things were.''
And this is the sad history Of all at
tempts to educate, elevate and civil
Ire the various low types Of the hu-
man race.
1t il said that man first subsists by
hshing and hunting, then he becomes
. keeper Of herds, then q farmer.
then politician. This may apply to
and be true of the Caucasians but it
certainly has failed to be verified in
four centuries on this continent with
the Indian. and in forty centuries
with the African in his native jung
les. At least twelve generations of
the Indian race has been born, lived
and died since the Caucasian race be-
came residents and occupants of the
western continent.
Not = foot Of the soil of the western
continent was appropriated to pri-
vate ownership at the time OF it's dis
covery, and not foot Of it has been
20 appropriated by the savage race
In the intervening four centuries.
And not foot o. the soil OF Southern
Africa was appropriated to private
ownership when the Portuguese set
tied on its western coast four hun