The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-10-22
ABsORPTION OF rHE NEeRo RAOE
Considered from Any Point ofYlsw. Bits
hop Gaihss' Theory Is Fantastic.

NNAANeEeu from ANY folht OF view oh-
hop Gainss' Theory Is Fantastic.
New York Evening sun; The new
racial theory which Bishop Gaines adj
vances TO the effect that the whites are
surely absorbing the negro race in the
United States, which thus by the process
Of evolution is destined to become Cau-
caslan, has a certain audaclty and now
city, but hundreds OF generations VIII
have come and gone before the bishops
theory shall have been tested, admitting
that 1t has germ Of truth.
At the last constitutional convention
In South Carolina, when the question OF
allowing marriages between whites and
persons with a very small infusion OF
African blood in their veins was under
consideration, Senator Tillman declared
that there were white men of influence
and social distinction IN South Carolina
who were part negro. perhaps In a very
slight degree, however. No one took
issue with the senator, for he had stated
fact which was well enough known
hut always alluded 10 under the breath,
Until about two years ago there was no
miscegenartOn law in Louisiana, and
every attempt to pass bill through both
houses of the legislature had failed It
was said that white families 81 wealth
and standing were interested In obstruct-
ing the proposed legislation, and It was
not until the Times Democrat OF New
Orleans printed some very significant
editorials on the subject that a mlsce-
genation law was placed on the statute
books.
But in spite OF the fact that negro
blood does mingle In the veins of men
here and there who pass for pure eau
casians, the antagonism TO intermarrIage
Is as sharp as ever both In the north and
| SOUTH Indeed, there is very little ahate-
ment of the social prejudice against the
negro. Even In Boston, which was the
hotbed of abolition when the north as a
whole was still Indifferent to the instl-
tuition OF slavery the hobel-keeper re-
fuses to receive the negro as a guest. II
was only the other day that the story of
young woman with negro blood in her
veins graduating from Vassar made a
sensation in the newspapers, although
Harvard long since welcomed the negro
and has made II a point Of honor not to
discriminate against him. II Is plain,
then, that the social barrier, notwith-
standing the liberal example OF Harvard
and other colleges and Notwithstanding
the admiXture of the blood OF the races
that has already taken place. is to be
kept up against the negro.
Even though It were lowered, pride OF
family-and nothing Is more quick, SEN
sltlve, and tenacious--would be inter-
posed, Absorption of the negro race by
the white Is evidently not to be induced
by intermarriage so far as we can SEQ
into the future. Is It to come through
the immoral relations OF the races? The
affirmative cannot be held without doing
gross and wanton injustice to the ne
gro. His race In the United States has
suffered deplorably from the vices of the
Caucasian, but 1t has begun to throw off
the letters of ignorance. and II one were
to adopt the theory OF absorption except
by intermarrlage 1t would be the same
thing as contending that education and
refining influences have done nothing
for the American negro. When Bishop
Gaines theory Is considered from any
| point Of view 1t appears to be fantastic
and visionary. If We were TO grant the
possibility of the negroes absorption by
the white race In the United States In.
say, thousand or 1000 years, we should
be overlooking the question OF emlgra-
ton from Africa, which some day win
/ surely be a resultant of the development
| Of the Dark Continent.