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white population of the United States becomes; the more isolated will it remain。 *s
'Footnote r: This opinion is sanctioned by authorities infinitely weightier than anything that I can say: thus; for instance; it is stated in the 〃Memoirs of Jefferson〃 (as collected by M。 Conseil); 〃Nothing is more clearly written in the book of destiny than the emancipation of the blacks; and it is equally certain that the two races will never live in a state of equal freedom under the same government; so insurmountable are the barriers which nature; habit; and opinions have established between them。〃'
'Footnote s: If the British West India planters had governed themselves; they would assuredly not have passed the Slave Emancipation Bill which the mother…country has recently imposed upon them。'
I have previously observed that the mixed race is the true bond of union between the Europeans and the Indians; just so the mulattoes are the true means of transition between the white and the negro; so that wherever mulattoes abound; the intermixture of the two races is not impossible。 In some parts of America; the European and the negro races are so crossed by one another; that it is rare to meet with a man who is entirely black; or entirely white: when they are arrived at this point; the two races may really be said to be combined; or rather to have been absorbed in a third race; which is connected with both without being identical with either。
Of all the Europeans the English are those who have mixed least with the negroes。 More mulattoes are to be seen in the South of the Union than in the North; but still they are infinitely more scarce than in any other European colony: mulattoes are by no means numerous in the United States; they have no force peculiar to themselves; and when quarrels originating in differences of color take place; they generally side with the whites; just as the lackeys of the great; in Europe; assume the contemptuous airs of nobility to the lower orders。
The pride of origin; which is natural to the English; is singularly augmented by the personal pride which democratic liberty fosters amongst the Americans: the white citizen of the United States is proud of his race; and proud of himself。 But if the whites and the negroes do not intermingle in the North of the Union; how should they mix in the South? Can it be supposed for an instant; that an American of the Southern States; placed; as he must forever be; between the white man with all his physical and moral superiority and the negro; will ever think of preferring the latter? The Americans of the Southern States have two powerful passions which will always keep them aloof; the first is the fear of being assimilated to the negroes; their former slaves; and the second the dread of sinking below the whites; their neighbors。
If I were called upon to predict what will probably occur at some future time; I should say; that the abolition of slavery in the South will; in the common course of things; increase the repugnance of the white population for the men of color。 I found this opinion upon the analogous observation which I already had occasion to make in the North。 I there remarked that the white inhabitants of the North avoid the negroes with increasing care; in proportion as the legal barriers of separation are removed by the legislature; and why should not the same result take place in the South? In the North; the whites are deterred from intermingling with the blacks by the fear of an imaginary danger; in the South; where the danger would be real; I cannot imagine that the fear would be less general。
If; on the one hand; it be admitted (and the fact is unquestionable) that the colored population perpetually accumulates in the extreme South; and that it increases more rapidly than that of the whites; and if; on the other hand; it be allowed that it is impossible to foresee a time at which the whites and the blacks will be so intermingled as to derive the same benefits from society; must it not be inferred that the blacks and the whites will; sooner or later; come to open strife in the Southern States of the Union? But if it be asked what the issue of the struggle is likely to be; it will readily be understood that we are here left to form a very vague surmise of the truth。 The human mind may succeed in tracing a wide circle; as it were; which includes the course of future events; but within that circle a thousand various chances and circumstances may direct it in as many different ways; and in every picture of the future there is a dim spot; which the eye of the understanding cannot penetrate。 It appears; however; to be extremely probable that in the West Indian Islands the white race is destined to be subdued; and the black population to share the same fate upon the continent。
In the West India Islands the white planters are surrounded by an immense black population; on the continent; the blacks are placed between the ocean and an innumerable people; which already extends over them in a dense mass; from the icy confines of Canada to the frontiers of Virginia; and from the banks of the Missouri to the shores of the Atlantic。 If the white citizens of North America remain united; it cannot be supposed that the negroes will escape the destruction with which they are menaced; they must be subdued by want or by the sword。 But the black population which is accumulated along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico; has a chance of success if the American Union is dissolved when the struggle between the two races begins。 If the federal tie were broken; the citizens of the South would be wrong to rely upon any lasting succor from their Northern countrymen。 The latter are well aware that the danger can never reach them; and unless they are constrained to march to the assistance of the South by a positive obligation; it may be foreseen that the sympathy of color will be insufficient to stimulate their exertions。
Yet; at whatever period the strife may break out; the whites of the South; even if they are abandoned to their own resources; will enter the lists with an immense superiority of knowledge and of the means of warfare; but the blacks will have numerical strength and the energy of despair upon their side; and these are powerful resources to men who have taken up arms。 The fate of the white population of the Southern States will; perhaps; be similar to that of the Moors in Spain。 After having occupied the land for centuries; it will perhaps be forced to retire to the country whence its ancestors came; and to abandon to the negroes the possession of a territory; which Providence seems to have more peculiarly destined for them; since they can subsist and labor in it more easily that the whites。
The danger of a conflict between the white and the black inhabitants of the Southern States of the Union … a danger which; however remote it may be; is inevitable … perpetually haunts the imagination of the Americans。 The inhabitants of the North make it a common topic of conversation; although they have no direct injury to fear from the struggle; but they vainly endeavor to devise some means of obviating the misfortunes which they foresee。 In the Southern St