LIKELY TO DIMINISH BY EMANCIPATION. 219 of the kind, however, this is beyond the legitimate reach of legislation. I believe that the effect of general emancipation will be to discourage amalgamation. It is rare in Canada; and public opinion there, among blacks as well as whites, is against it. Bishop Green, of the Methodist Church, Canada, deposed, "You do not see any of our respectable people here marrying any persons but their own associates." John Kinney, an intelligent colored man, said, “The majority of the colored people don't like the intermarriage of colored and white people." Colonel Stevenson said, "The colored people don't like to have one of their color marry a white woman." Such marriages do occur in Canada, but they are rare.* De Tocqueville had already remarked that emancipation, which might be supposed to favor amalgamation, does, in point of fact, repress it.† Amalgamation, in its worst form, is the offspring of slavery. The facts seem to indicate that, with the abolition of slavery, it will materially diminish, though it may be doubted whether it will ever wholly disappear. CHAPTER VI. RECIPROCAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF THE RACES ON EACH OTHER. ASIDE from this apparently injurious mingling of blood, the social influence of the two races on each other, so soon as their reciprocal relations are based * Supplemental Report (A), pp. 30, 31. 220 CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO RACES. on justice, will, beyond question, be mutually beneficial. There are elements in the character of each calculated to exert a happy influence on the other. The Anglo-Saxon race, with great force of character, much mental activity, an unflagging spirit of enterprise, has a certain hardness, a stubborn will, only moderate geniality, a lack of habitual cheerfulness. Its intellectual powers are stronger than its social instincts. The head predominates over the heart. There is little that is emotional in its religion. It is not devoid of instinctive devotion; but neither is such devotion a ruling element. It is a race more calculated to call forth respect than love; better fitted to do than to enjoy. The African race is in many respects the reverse of this. Genial, lively, docile, emotional, the affections rule; the social instincts maintain the ascendant. Except under cruel repression, its cheerfulness and love of mirth overflow with the exuberance of childhood. It is devotional by feeling. It is a knowing rather than a thinking race. Its perceptive faculties are stronger than its reflective powers. It is well fitted to occupy useful stations in life,-but such as require quick observation rather than comprehensive views or strong sense. It is little given to stirring enterprise, but rather to quiet accumulation. It is not a race that will ever take a lead in the material improvement of the world; but it will make for itself, whenever it has fair play, respectable positions, comfortable homes.* "The surest sign of their thrift is the appearance of their dwellinghouses, farms, stock, tools, and the like. In these, moreover, we find encouraging signs for the negro, because they show that he feels so strongly the family instinct and the desire to possess land and a dwelling-place.”— Supplemental Report (A), p. 62. NEGRO NOT REVENGEFUL. 221 As regards the virtues of humility, loving-kindness, resignation under adversity, reliance on Divine Providence, this race exhibits these, as a general rule, in a more marked manner than does the Anglo-Saxon. Nor do we find among them a spirit of revenge or bloodthirstiness or rancorous ill will towards their oppressors. The exceptions to this rule, notwithstanding the great temptations to which the race have been exposed, are very rare. No race of men appears better to have obeyed the injunction not to return evil for evil, or to have acted more strictly in the spirit of the text, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." With time, as civilization advances, these Christian graces of meekness and long-suffering will be rated higher than the world rates them now. With time, if we but treat these people in a Christian spirit, we shall have our reward. The softening influence of their genial spirit, diffused throughout the community, will make itself felt as an element of improvement in the national character. And, on the other hand, they will learn much and gain much from us. They will gain in force of character, in mental cultivation, in self-reliance, in enter "Canada is full of men and women who in the first half of their lives were witnesses and sufferers of such indignities and wrongs as would burn into most white men's souls and make them pass the last half in plotting vengeance. Not so these people. They cherish no spirit of vengeance, and seem to have no grudge against their oppressors. The memory and recital of their wrongs do not arouse such bitter feelings and call out such maledictions as would certainly be heard from white men of similar experience. A single instance only is recollected in which a feeling of unsatisfied vengeance was manifested; but many are recalled where the old master and mistress were spoken of with kindness, and regret expressed that they would not be seen again."-Supplemental Report (A), pp. 97, 98. 222 EFFECTS, IN A MILITARY POINT OF VIEW, prise, in breadth of views, and in habits of generalization. Our influence over them, if we treat them well, will be powerful for good.* CHAPTER VII. IMPORTANCE, NATIONALLY, THAT THE NEGRO BE TREATED WITH JUSTICE. THE last sentence contains an important proviso." If we treat them well! Every thing depends upon that. There depends upon it not alone the future of four millions and a half of people, native-born, and who will remain, for good or for evil, in the land of their birth, but also, looking to the immediate present, there depends, to a certain extent, the likelihood of thoroughly and speedily putting down the present rebellion. Every aggression, every act of injustice committed by a Northern man against unoffending fugitives from despotism, every insult offered by the base prejudice of our race to a colored man because of his African descent, is not only a breach of humanity, an offence against civilization, but it is also an act which gives aid and comfort to the enemy. The report of it goes abroad,-penetrates into the enemy's country. So far as its influence there extends, the effect is to deter the slave from leaving his master,-therefore to secure to * Mr. McCullum, principal of the High School, Hamilton, Canada, said, "Colored people brought up among whites look better than others. Their rougher, harsher features disappear. I think that colored children brought up among white people look better than their parents."-Supplemental Report (A), p. 79. OF ILL-TREATING NEGROES. 223 that master a bread-producer, and, by the same act, to deprive the Union of a colored soldier, and force the Government to withdraw a laborer, in his stead, from a Northern farm. The practical effect, therefore, of abuse and injury to colored people, in these days, is not alone to disgrace the authors of such acts, but to compel conscription, and to strip the North-already scant of workinghands-of the laborers and the artisans that remain to her. Thousands of fields owned by white men may remain untilled, thousands of hearths owned by white men may be made desolate,-all as the direct result of the ill treatment of the colored race. Such a spirit is not treasonable, in the usual sense of that term; yet its results are the same as those of treason itself. It becomes, therefore, in a military point of view, of the highest importance that all wanton acts of aggression by soldiers or civilians, whether against refugees or against free negroes heretofore settled in the North, should be promptly and resolutely repressed, and the penalties of the law in every such case rigorously enforced. A prudent regard for our own safety and welfare, if no higher motive prompt, demands the taking of such precaution. We have imposed upon ourselves an additional obligation to see justice and humanity exercised towards these people, in accepting their services as soldiers. It would be a degree of baseness of which I hope our country is incapable, to treat with contumely the defenders of the Union,-the men who shall have confronted death on the battle-field, side by side with the bravest of our own race, in a struggle in which the stake is the existence, in peace and in their integrity, of these United States. |