Miscegenation : the Theory of the Blending of the Races
Applied to the American White Man and Negro. Reprinted from the New York edition. (Triibner and Co.)—So far as the anther contends for the right of the black man to perfect equality with the white before the law we entirely sympathize with him ; but even if he be right in con- tending that the negro race is naturally equal to the European, we can scarcely subscribe to the propositions on which he grounds his opinion. Do "the teachings of physiology settle the question that all the tribes which inhabit the earth were originally derived from one type ?" Has "the equality of the black with the white under the same advantages of education and position" been "proved conclusively ?" Mixed races probably are generally superior to unmixed. But is the German race on that account superior to the Scandinavian ? Certainly the predomi- nating influence of Piedmont in Italy is not due to their being a more hybrid race than the Sicilian or Neapolitan, the Sicilisn being per- haps the most mixed race in Europe. Nor can we think that the superiority of the South to the North in the present war is due to the improvement worked in the Southern white by his association with the black, but rather prefer to attribute it to the abilities of Mr. Davis and General Lee. In a word, we doubt the author's facts, and think his reasoning extravagant and sometimes, as in Chapter XIV., repulsive. His conclusion is sound enough, but may be arrived at by a much more simple process.
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