Sentence:  Idleness is his chief good, and pauperism and theft are for the race not an unwelcome means of attaining their object. The vis inertia of the black blood is so great, that even a large mixture of white blood will overcome it only so far as to induce the individual to perform menial offices, <WSD>clinging to the skirts of</WSD> white society. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To depend upon and be unwilling to relinquish.