Southern climate must always be congenial to him, it is more than probable that the South will continue to be the head-quarters of the race and the theater of its achievements. Whatever of excitement his nature demands, is readily gratified by the mild recreations of rod and gun. Beyond the annual local flittings, begotten oftener of financial failure and disappointment than of innate restlessness, his desire to explore unknown regions lies dormant, if, indeed, it exists at all. The Kansas craze might be quoted in contradiction of this view; but as that hegira was simply the outcome of false and alluring promises, which had its sad and prompt sequel in the homeward travel of many a foot-sore and heart-sick dupe, it counts for naught in the way of argument. Of course, as educational advantages increase, there will be many and notable departures from the general rule here laid down.

The question of miscegenation bids fair to work out its own solution according to that dictate of nature which has the preservation of the unities for its object. The probability of intermarriage with the white race will grow less as time passes on, and the freedman comes to recognize himself as something more than a chattel, manufactured for the exclusive use and pleasure of a superior race. With the cultivation of his mind and the expansion of his intellect, his self-esteem will be increased, and the ban which nature herself has placed upon the commingling of the races will be strengthened by their new-found and selfrespecting pride of race. Thus, while his political and social privileges will undoubtedly increase, and will be willingly accorded him by the Southern whites, when he shall have become fitted for their exercise, the idea of intermarriage must always remain a remote possibility.

The necessity for improving the moral and mental condition of the negro being granted, it would be well to consider the most efficacious manner of so doing. In the present illogical condition of his faculties, concession and submission would be controvertible terms. He has never come to place so high an estimate upon his own brain-power as to pit himself against the palpable superiority of the educated race; hence, positive assertion and direct guidance on the part of those who would improve his condition, or win him to a just conception of his rights and his responsibilities, must for some time to come be deemed the wisest and truest policy to pursue toward a people kept humble VOL. CXXXIX.-NO. 332.

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by consciousness of their own deficiencies. Given that degree of education which the average mind attains under the commonschool system of the United States, plus the negro's imitative nature, which will always cause him to take the social and political hue of his surroundings, and there is no reason to apprehend that he will ever become a source of danger to the nation, in which at present he is a very knotty problem.

J. H. WALWORTH.

THE negro may migrate, but he will not emigrate. He has been here more than two hundred and fifty years, and quite as much as any other class he is imbued with our religion and with our ideas, while he is largely interwoven with our material interests and prosperity. Every attempt at his deportation to the tropics or elsewhere, or his segregation on this continent, has signally failed. Every fact in his history, every known trait in his character, indicate that he will remain where he is. But while remaining here, he will also continue as a distinct race. Negroes have a settled antipathy to intermarriages with whites. The whites are so saturated with prejudice and the idea of the negro's inferiority, and so oblivious to the fact that he is now free, with no limit to his pursuit and enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness, that everything is done by them to discourage, restrict, and prevent such marriages. But such arbitrary and unnatural restriction, founded on prejudice, is wholly out of place in America, and ought to be out of date in any civilized country in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

As a colored man, my observation-somewhat extensive, both on the Atlantic and Pacific shores-leads me to the conclusion that the negro's political and social privileges will increase. The tendency in this country is toward a recognized equality of all political rights and public privileges. The great underlying principle of the Government is that all men, without reference to their origin, shall have and enjoy the right and opportunity to become good citizens, and to make the most of themselves. Without this, America would hardly be more than the Old World was before the French Revolution. We are none of us greater than events, and we cannot, if we would, annihilate or subvert the law of sequences.

The negro will win favor both by assertion and by concession. A reasonable view of the situation cannot separate these two methods. He must concede as well as assert, but always in the light of acknowledged American principles and of that higher law, public sentiment. He is only too willing to concede, but he must, and by instinct will, assert what both written and unwritten law accord to him. Neither abject concession on the one hand, nor boisterous assertion on the other, will avail him. He must observe the golden mean. Though as yet he is a source of danger, he will ultimately be a useful element in the body politic. The danger arises from his imperfect appreciation of the responsibilities of the ballot, and from the cunning and violence that are resorted to in the South to deprive him of it. Aside from this, consistent testimony shows that he is peaceable, industrious, and progressive in every respect. The negroes constitute one-eighth of our population. No available tonnage could take them back to the land of their forefathers. They are loyal, patriotic, and thoroughly American, and all they ask is fair play.

J. A. EMERSON.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CCCXXXIII.

AUGUST, 1884.

THE ENCROACHMENTS OF CAPITAL.

It is one of the maxims of Machiavelli, in which most public writers and jurists agree, that in order to preserve soundness and health, all nations should often go back to first principles. And the reason he gives is that each form of government is usually framed in the outset on the principles which belong to its best condition, and that all departures to any serious extent are unnatural, and therefore dangerous. This notion is more familiar to practical statesmen than to theoretical reformers, for these are very apt to insist on putting in the frame-work what, if of any use at all, is only a temporary device, in no way essential to national life. We have our periodical fits of fidgety doubts and fears, and society is alarmed by ideas of ruin and disruption, as agitators come out with threats or prophecies of evil. But the same shrewd observer, looking back over history, declared that the multitude, with all its shortcomings, is wiser and more constant than princes. And inasmuch as every people must have a government of some kind, and must, at any rate, fix by choice or acquiescence the rule under which they live, we have no great reason to feel anxious that our social scheme will be much disturbed by any such troubles as timid people look for. We have had what is usually a thorough test in civil war, and as it resulted VOL. CXXXIX.-NO. 333.

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