Page:A defence of the negro race in America from the assaults and charges of Rev. J. L. Tucker.djvu/8

 universal demand for foreign goods; by the search for outlets for native products; and by the immense trade which is poured out of every river into the holds of foreign vessels.

But perchance Dr. Tucker will insist that the portrait he gives of the Negro is a true one. He is void of family feeling; he is lewd; he is a liar and self-deceiver; he is dishonest and improvident. Grant, for the moment that this representation of the American Negro is correct. I have shown that these characteristics are not native to the race. Whence then this divergence of character from the original type? Why is the black man in America, so different in morality from his pagan brother in Africa?

Look at Dr. Tucker's picture of the moral degradation of this people. I do not wish to do him the least injustice. Nevertheless I think I may repeat St. Paul's summary of the moral condition of the Pagan Romans, of his day, as the equivalent of Dr. Tucker's characterization of the American Negro. I leave it to the reader to strike out the few epithets in Rom. 1, 29; or I Tim. 1, 9 and 10, which may seem inapplicable to this case, for Dr. T. charges them as a class, with hypocrisy, lying, stealing, adultery, &c.