Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/278

254 are, as it seems to the present writer, of much greater importance, especially to a nation living under a re- publican form of government. These questions I have stated to be: 1st, that of negro rule; and 2d, that of negro mixture of race. When a man has a service to perform to his kind, it is essential that he shall observe the physical condi- tions which are necessary to the performance of it. A teacher or preacher who should so live as to be in continual ill health, could not be said to be per- forming his duty. A judge, attorney, or member of Congress who should eat or drink himself sick as a habit, would not long retain his position. The people of the United States have to show mankind how order may be conserved consistently with the greatest amount of personal liberty. This we think is accomplished under our form of govern- ment. But all races are not equally capable of sus- taining this relation between order and freedom. In fact, what we know as the inferior races, the Mon- golian and African, have never made successful at- tempts to sustain republican forms of government. The negro has conspicuously failed in all but abso- lute governments, whatever they may be in name. It is not certain that all the white race are capable of self-government at present. The neighboring so-called republic of Mexico is really a military despotism, al- though I believe that the material for a republic is there, and that at some future day that country will be in fact what it is now only in name. The United States have made laws excluding the Chinese from our country. We have assumed the right to do this for our ov/n protection. On the whole, the present writer approves of these laws, although some of the reasons assigned in support of thern are not good, and the maltreatment of particular Chinese is a stain on the name of our country. Many nations have at different periods of history re- moved parts of their populations outside of their bor-