be drawn from the case of the Southern States seems to be that you must not, however excellent your intentions and however admirable your sentiments, legislate in the teeth of facts.... Nevertheless, the general opinion of dispassionate men has come to deem the action taken in a.d. 1870 a mistake." .... .... a.d. Now, we are quite willing to concede that possibly, even probably, there are exceptions to the general conclusions of this eminently fair-minded investigator. We feel sure there are many cases in which the Mulatto is raised distinctly above his coal-black parent; we believe there are some cases, relatively rare, absolutely frequent, in which he rises measurably above the median line, towards his white parent. The law of Mendel, or any other plausible law of inheritance, would lead us to expect such a result. And yet, the extreme difficulty of organic ascent, whether of the individual or of the race, as compared with the fatal facility of descent, prepares us to expect, in general terms, precisely what Mr. Bryce affirms. It is so easy to fall ill! It is so hard to get well! In any case, that the average of cross-breeding between widely separate races, like Black and White, rises above the mid-line or approaches the superior, is a proposition that runs squarely against all evidence and all reason, nor will anything but invincible prepossession maintain it. True it is, that a great authority, a stalwart champion of the Black man, whose attention we had called to these extracts, declares in reply that he is "not at all affected by Mr. Bryce's statements." He thinks we have here, in the United States, a much broader basis of induction than the Englishman has (as if Mr. Bryce, the author of "Assimilation of Races in the United States" [1892], of all men, could neglect or ignore this important example!); he has in mind a case of triple mixture, reaching back several generations, yet the family are vigorous and of excellent character; and he refers to thousands of Mulattoes that are perfect physically—all of which may be true and yet not enlightening. We sometimes meet with not uncultured persons who are firmly persuaded that the moon controls the weather. Tell them that the most minute and accurate observations, extending through half a century and designed to test the matter, have failed to reveal any connection between the weather and the moon's phases; point out to them the insuperable obstacles in the way of their opinion—and they reply that they are "not at all affected by your statements",
Prev.
Back
Top