of an intelligent purpose, and it requires the slight physical act of depositing at the polls a ballot that represents this purpose. And that is all there is of it. It seems ludicrous to consider gravely the objection that danger to woman's refinement of character is involved in the simple act of attendance at the polls. And yet how much rhetoric has been expended in painting the debasement of such a scene! It was an unnatural libel to assert that American manhood would anywhere insult womanhood. But, happily, we need not now rely upon à priori assumptions, for experience has demonstrated that women, exercising the limited right of voting for school committee, or in some of the Territories exercising unrestricted suffrage, or in many of the States attending the polls to cheer on and augment the anti-liquor vote, have been treated with chivalrous courtesy. And the recent device of dividing the voting in the wards of cities and in large towns into precincts, together with the presence of additional scrutinizing officers, has markedly tended to additional good order and removed nearly all discomfort. The habitual presence of women in large numbers at the voting places would undoubtedly still further refine the manners and the surroundings there. In any event, the public exposure to which women could be subject in exercising the right of suffrage would be nothing compared with that which one class cheerfully undergo at the behest of fashion, and another under the pressure of necessity.

If, then, there need be nothing offensive in the act of voting, is there anything unwomanly in the preparation for it? So far as relates to moral and social questions, which form an increasingly large part of governmental problems, they are such as, in their general aspects, naturally interest the wife, the mother, or the sister. And many questions not apparently falling into this class have really vital humanitarian relations that ought to have determining force in their solution. No discussion, for instance, of the tariff question can be complete that treats it merely as one of political economy, although the accumulation and right distribution of national wealth is undoubtedly a potent factor in the elevation of modern society. As President Seeley has well said: "Economic questions are wisely determined only by ethical considerations."

But will it be said that the machinery of politics is debasing? Well, then, the answer is ready: Improve it, or destroy it. If the caucus is corrupt, let the voter ignore it. If it is not a fit

place for women to attend, its decrees need have no binding force on them, nor indeed on men. American virtue has already, in conspicuous instances, risen to the height of defying them. Nor is attendance at a caucus one of the necessary qualifications for voting. There are large numbers of quiet men whom we never expect to see there, but whom we are always glad to see at the polls. Let those whose interest or taste leads them to manage the machinery of politics do so; but let them know that they must do so in the interest of good morals and good principles, or the day of reckoning will be for them the day of crushing defeat.

We hear sometimes of what is called "the Quaker vote," by which, I suppose, is meant the votes of quiet citizens who have little taste for ordinary politics, and who generally do not care to be found at the polls, but who come out when their aid is needed for truth or righteousness. In this reserve vote is often the hope of the country. And so the state would be the safer if, in every moral exigency, we could depend on the vote of our independent, conscientious, and home-loving country-women.

ROBERT C. PITMAN.

THE AFRICAN PROBLEM.

AN article of mine, published in 1883, entitled "The African in the United States," has been the object of so much adverse criticism, that I have felt called upon to reëxamine the argument carefully. The result, strengthening former conclusions, is given in the following pages. The argument is as follows: If the negro, while slowly advancing in education and wealth, is rapidly gaining in population upon the whites; and if he is, and must continue to be, an alien and distinct race, and, struggling to rise, must be pressed back by the ruling whites toward the labor-line; then disastrous social disorders are threatened, and colonization-enforced, if necessary- is the remedy.

Respecting the progress of races two views prevail. According to one, enlightened nations were once savages, who, gradually, and by a combination of lifting influences, partly internal and partly external, have reached their present status. According to the other, savage tribes are the swamps and bogs along life's river, whose flow has been noble from the start, illustrated, at different points in its course, by the Mosaic writings, Greek art and poetry, Roman law, and modern civilization. We give the negro the benefit of the former view, and hold that, as Asia was once in the ascendant, as Europe is now, so the day for Africa is to dawn. The negro, intellectually, is fairly advancing, at least in the rudiments. His educational percentage for the past decade shows better than that of the whites. In the seven States where the negroes are massed, and where causes abnormally affecting population, white and black, have been least operative (the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas), the decrease of illiteracy, as shown by being unable to write, was two per cent. for the whites, and seven per cent. for the blacks. The high figure for the latter is largely due to temporary stimulants and will not be maintained. The causes of the difference are: First, the novelty of

the educational privilege, which it is altogether unlikely the blacks will continue to make use of with the same ardor; second, that in 1870 illiteracy and school material among the blacks (eighty-three per cent.) were far greater than among the whites (twenty-seven per cent.); third, that the element among the blacks the mulatto - that has been receiving education most freely, is declining, both in numbers and in character.

That the most intelligent of the colored population are the distinct mulattoes is everywhere noticeable. I mark it at their higher seats of learning. The representative men are mulattoes. In Washington the prominent colored office-holders are almost exclusively of this class. I can recall but one exception, the Congressman from South Carolina; and generally he would be regarded as a mulatto, with strong recession toward the pure African type. And in the minor offices the genuine black hue is the rare exception. Educational superiority for the mulatto is indisputable; and his large percentage of Caucasian blood would make it presumable. This element is diminishing; that is, it is losing its white blood and receding toward the negro type. For the decade ending with 1800, the excessive increase (eighty-two per cent.) of the free blacks, almost exclusively mulattoes, is readily accounted for. Compared with the whites and the slaves they were then a very small body, and grew with abnormal rapidity from the parentage of sensual white men and negresses. Subsequently, the rate of increase steadily declined, until for the several decades prior to emancipation it was about half that of the slaves. The illicit commingling of white and black blood is now practically over, and the mulatto gain from this source is cut off. Doubtless, there has been gain under the new régime, from the more frequent marital relations between mulattoes and blacks, but not enough to compensate for this loss; and it is clear that the mulatto is becoming absorbed in the pure African type. The result is said to be a mongrel race, inferior to the native negro. Whether mental capacity is dependent upon the size of the brain, or its quality, is a question. Certain scientists, assuming size as the criterion, and testing the brains of a large number of half-breeds in various stages of amalgamation, have reached the conclusion that three-fourths white blood gives mental capacity little below that of the Caucasian; half white, a capacity above that of the pure negro; while a quarter or an eighth white marks a breed decidedly

below the negro. Since the stream of original white blood has been, through emancipation, almost entirely cut off, and will remain so, mulattoes and blacks are left to mingle in marital relation, with a deteriorating tendency. The better class of mulattoes, marrying generally within their own circles, will be able to maintain, for some period, the preponderance of white blood. But from the white increment, divided and subdivided, must be evolved in the end an inferior race.

In the accumulation of property it would be instructive to know what progress the blacks are making, absolutely and relatively. To get statistics is almost impossible, the census not giving the wealth, individually or collectively, according to races. It is certain that progress is being made, but it is small compared with the remarkable progress that the South, as a whole, exhibits. The political supremacy of the whites, and the general material prosperity of those of the middle class who at the close of the war became possessed of the dismembered estates of the bankrupt planters, have been instrumental in rousing throughout the South a vigorous life, and giving to her industrial interests a lift that, in the retrospect, is amazing. In the general advancement, the colored man has undoubtedly gone forward; it is matter of regret that the census does not show to what degree. It will not be doubted that this progress has been very largely made by the better class of mulattoes. Observation and inquiry all tend to show this, as they also show that the genuine blacks, still improvident, have not done much, generally, to improve their worldly condition. With a large percentage now, as just after emancipation, it is a hand-to-mouth existence.

I regret being unable to speak for the colored man a better word in the way of moral advancement. As a slave he was an enthusiast for religion. It was a symbol of freedom, and held out to him the hope of sitting above kings, in a higher sphere. Unfortunately, it took on, too generally, a sensuous form, and negroes at the South sought their excited religious meetings for the ecstasies and bodily pleasure they afforded. Emancipation, education, increased worldly comfort, have enlarged both their sphere of endeavor and the degree and variety of enjoyment, and I fear religion does not possess the same attraction and influence as of yore. Never, until within the past year or two, have I heard negroes proclaim on the streets ultra and defiant infidelity. Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who, with every opportunity and advan