Primary tabs

2

"Miscegenation."

"The crisis is reached and passed," says Mr. Lincoln. The republican party have satisfactorily passed the stage of simple abolition; and now stand arrayed in the full blown glory of advocates of — "miscegenation." It is upon this platform that we are now to meet and combat them. The word is admirably selected to express the desire of the abolitionists. It is a hybrid — being an amalgamation of a Greek with a Latin word, and means simply a mixture of breeds. It has more advocates to-day amongst leading republicans than had Helper's theories six years ago.

One of its apostles has recently published a book, in which the advantages of the new order of things, which is to herald an abolition millennium, are glowingly set forth. Let us favor our readers with a few "elegant extracts" from its delectable pages:

"The white race which settled in New England will be unable to maintain its vitality as a blonde people.

They need the intermingling of the rich tropic temperament of the negro to give warmth and fullness to their natures. They feel the yearning, and do not know how to interpret it."

And again:
"When the president proclaimed emancipation he proclaimed also the commingling of the races. The one follows the other as surely as noonday follows sunrise."

Once more:
"And now, behold! the great republican party has merged into the little abolition party. The drop has colored the bucketful. There are only two parties now, the abolition, which is, in effect, the party of miscegenation; and behold them, that contemptible crowd who fear the south, and have no policy for the north but expediency. Why did abolitionism swallow republicanism? Because it was founded as principles that approach nearer the truth."

From the "cloud of witnesses" — most of them shining lights in the "loyal" party of to-day, and clamorous for Masser Linkum's re-election we quote two, which must serve for this article. We may observe, however, that a greater number of men have already publicly indorsed the theory and practice of "miscegenation" than had, sic years ago, indorsed the sentiments of Helper's "Impending Crisis" — which are now cardinal features in the republican creed. Wendell Phillips thinks the country will go to destruction unless its amalgamates. He says:

"I have no hope for the future, as this country has no past, and Europe has no past, but in that sublime mingling of races which is God's own method of civilization and elevating the world."

Says Tilton, the editor of the Independent:

"The history of the world's civilization is written in one word — what many are afraid to speak — which many more are afraid to hear — and that is, amalgamation. In the far future, the negro will wash his face into paleness with the blood of white men's veins."

It will not do for thin-skinned and tender-footed "loyalists" to repudiate these doctrines and declare they never will entertain such sentiments. They have swallowed Helper, whom they repudiated as indignantly and sincerely but a few years ago; Phillips, Tilton and such men have always led the republican party will, sooner or later, occupy the ground on which these worthies now plant themselves. "The commingling of the races is to follow emancipation as surely as noonday follows sunrise," says the abolitionists bible; and a man who simply favors the abolition of slavery is to a fully developed "miscegenationists" just what a tadpole is to a frog — he is sure to come to it at last. Republicans would not believe Phillips and Greeley when they told them they would soon be thorough and complete abolitionists; but they have reached that goal sooner even then their prophets expected. There is no more doubt that the abolitionist of to-day will eventually reach the ultima thule of miscegenation, than that "noonday will follow sunrise." An orator in our neighboring city of Jacksonville the other day exultingly assured a select and fashionable audience that "when this cruel war is over" the brave Othellos of the south would come north to claim their fair Desdemonas.

In brief, four years ago, the tendencies of the republican party were to abolition; it is now thoroughly abolitionized, and its tendencies are to amalgamation. Its leaders have already taken the step, and the rank and file will as assuredly follow, as that water runs down hill. As a practical exemplification of the progress of these ideas, let us quote the following:

"Private advices from Port Royal say that many of the female abolitionists who went to Port Royal to teach the little niggers how to read and pray, have been obliged, within the past few months, to abandon their black charges and open nurseries on their own private account. An officer informed us recently that no less than sixty-four white spinsters had contributed to the population in and about Port Royal harbor. The climate seems to favor population even more than the production of Sea Island cotton by paid negro labor."

The author of these statements about the mulatto children is Rev. Liberty Billings, lieutenant colonel of the 1st S. C. negro regiment, and formerly pastor of the Unitarian church in Quincy, Illinois, well known as one of the most eloquent divines of the state, and an earnest abolitionist. Those Massachusetts school teachers have only been putting in practice the teachings of the work from which we have quoted above, which tells them "that in the millennial future, the most perfect and highest type of manhood will not be white or black, but brown or colored, and that whoever helps to unite the various races of men helps to make the human family the sooner realize its great destiny."

It is well to familiarize ourselves with the consideration of this newly declared element in republican principles.

Share