The Negro: What is His Ethnological Status? 2nd Ed.

by Ariel

The intelligent can not fail to discover who was the tempter in the garden of Eden. It was a beast, a talking beast—a beast that talked naturally—if it required a miracle to make it talk (as our learned men suppose, and as no one could then perform a miracle but God only and if he performed this miracle to make a snake, a serpent, talk, and to talk only with Eve, and that as soon as the serpent (?) seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, God then performed another miracle to stop his speaking afterward, that if this be true), then it follows beyond contradiction, that God is the immediate and direct author or cause of sin: an idea that can not be admitted for one moment, by any believer in the Bible. God called it a beast—"more subtile than all the beasts the Lord God had made." As Adam was the federal head of all his posterity, as well as the real head, so was this beast, the negro, the federal head of all beasts and cattle, etc., down to creeping things—to things that go upon the belly and eat dust all the days of their life. If all the beasts, cattle, etc., were not involved in the sin of their federal head, why did God destroy them at the flood? If the crime that brought destruction on the world was the sin of Adam's race alone, why destroy the innocent beasts, cattle, etc.? When all things were created, God not only pronounced them good, but "very good;" then why destroy these innocent (?) beasts, cattle, etc., for Adam's sin or wrong-doing? But, that these beasts, etc., were involved in the same sin with Adam, is positively plain, from one fact alone, among others, and that fact is: That before the fall of Adam in the garden, all was peace and harmony among and between all created beings and things. After the fall, strife, contention and war ensued, as much among the beasts, cattle, etc., as with the posterity of Adam; and continues so to the present time. Why should God thus afflict them for another's crime, if they were free and innocent of that crime? God told Adam, on the day of his creation, "to have dominion over everything living that moveth upon the earth:" but to Noah, after the flood, he uses very different language; for, while he told Noah to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, the same as he said to Adam, yet he adds, "and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, etc., and all that moveth upon the earth, etc.; into thy hands are they delivered". If these had continued in their "primeval goodness," wholly unconnected with Adam's sin, is it reasonable to suppose that God would have used the language toward them, that he did in his instructions to Noah? It is impossible! The intelligent can also see the judgments of God on this "unforgivable" sin, at the flood, at Babel, at Sodom and Gomorrah, and on the Canaanites, and in his law; and they may profit by the example. They can see the exact time (A.M. 235), when men—the negro—erected the first altar on earth; they had seen Adam, Cain, Abel, and Seth, erect altars and call on the name of the Lord. They, too, could imitate them; they did then imitate; they then built their altars; they then called an the name of the Lord; they are yet imitating; they are yet profaning the name of the Lord, by calling on his name. And you, the people of the United States, are upholding this profanity. Who was it that caused God to repent and to be grieved at his heart, that he had made man? Will you place yourselves alongside of that being, and against God? All analogy says you will! But remember, that the righteous will escape—the hardened alone will perish.

The ways of God are always consistent, when understood, and always just and reasonable. It is a curious fact, but a fact, nevertheless, and fully sustained by the Bible; and that fact is this; That God never conferred, and never designed to confer, any great blessing on the human family, but what he always selects or selected a white slaveholder or one of a white slaveholding nation, as the medium, by or through which that blessing should reach them. Why he has done so, is not material to discuss now; but the fact, that he always did so, the Bible abundantly proves. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and in whom and his seed all the families of the earth were to be blessed, is a notable instance of this truth. For Abraham owned three hundred and eighteen slaves. And the Saviour of the world was of a white slaveholding nation; and they held slaves by God's own laws, and not by theirs. And how has it been in respect of our own nation and government, the United States? A government now declared by thousands of lips, latterly, to be the best, the very best, that has ever been in the world. Who made this government? Who established it and its noble principles? Let us appeal to history. The first attack on British power, and the aggressions of its parliament, ever made on this continent, was made by a slaveholder, from a slave state, Patrick Henry, May 30, 1765. The first president of the first congress, that ever assembled on this continent, to consider of the affairs of the thirteen colonies, and which met in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, was a slave owner from a slave state, Peyton Randolph. The only secretary that congress ever had, was a slave owner from a slave state, Charles Thompson. The gentleman who was chairman of the committee of the whole, on Saturday, the 8th of June, 1776, and who, on the morning of the 10th reported the resolutions, that the thirteen colonies, of right ought to be free and independent states, was a slaveholder from a slave state, Benjamin Harrison. The same gentlemen again, as chairman of the committee of the whole, reported the Declaration of Independence in form; and to which he affixed his signature, on Thursday, July 4, 1776. The gentleman who wrote the Declaration of Independence, was a slave owner, from a slave state, Thomas Jefferson. The gentleman who was selected to lead their armies, as commander-in-chief, and who did lead them successfully, to victory and the independence of the country, was a slave owner, from a slave state, George Washington. The gentleman who was president of the convention, to form the constitution of the United States, was a slave holder, from a slave state, George Washington. The gentleman who wrote the constitution of the United States (making it the best government ever formed on earth), was a slave owner, from a slave state, James Madison. The first president of the United States, under that constitution, and who, under God gave it strength, consistency and power before the world, was a slave owner, from a slave state, George Washington; and these were all white men and slave owners; and whatever of peace, prosperity, happiness and glory, the people of the United States have enjoyed under it, have been from the administration of the government, by presidents elected by the people, of slave holders, from slave states. Whenever the people have elected a president from a non-slaveholding state, commencing with the elder Adams, and down to Mr. Lincoln, confusion, wrangling and strife have been the order of the day, until it culminated in the greatest civil war the world has ever beheld, under the last named gentleman. Why this has been so is not in the line of our subject. We mention it as a matter of history, to confirm the Bible fact, that God always selects slaveholders, or from a slaveholding nation, the media through which he confers his blessings on mankind. Would it not be wisdom to heed it now?

One reflection and then we are done. The people of the United States have now thrust upon them, the question of negro equality, social, political and religious. How will they decide it? If they decide it one way, then they will make the sixth cause of invoking God's wrath, once again on the earth. They will begin to discover this approaching wrath: (1.) By God bringing confusion. (2.) By his breaking the government into pieces, or fragments, in which the negro will go and settle with those that favor this equality. (3.) In God pouring out the fire of his wrath, on this portion of them; but in what way, or in what form, none can tell until it comes, only that in severity it will equal in intensity and torture, the destruction of fire burning them up. (4.) The states or people that favor this equality and amalgamation of the white and black races, God will exterminate. To make the negro, the political, social and religious equal of the white race by law, by statute and by constitutions, can easily be effected in words; but so to elevate the negro jure divino, is simply impossible. You can not elevate a beast to the level of a son of God—a son of Adam and Eve—but you may depress the sons of Adam and Eve, with their impress of the Almighty, down to the level of a beast. God has made one for immortality, and the other to perish with the animals of the earth. The antediluvians once made this depression. Will the people of the United States make another, and the last? Yes, they will, for a large majority of the North are unbelievers in the Bible; and this paper will make a large number of their clergy deists and atheists. A man can not commit so great an offense against his race, against his country, against his God, in any other way, as to give his daughter in marriage to a negro—a beast—or to take one of their females for his wife. As well might he in the sight of God, wed his child to any other beast of forest or of field. This crime can not be expiated—it never has been expiated on earth—and from its nature never can be, and, consequently, never was forgiven by God, and never will be. The negro is now free. There are but two things on earth, that may be done with him now, and the people and government of this country escape destruction. One or the other God will make you do, or make you accept his punishment, as he made Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Canaanites, before you. You must send him back to Africa or re-enslave him. The former is the best, far the best. Now, which will my countrymen do? I do not say fellow-citizens, as I regard myself but as a sojourner in the land, whose every political duty is now performed by obeying your laws, be they good or bad—not voting, nor assisting others in making your laws. Will my countrymen, in deciding for themselves these questions, remember—will they remember, that the first law of liberty is obedience to God. Without this obedience to the great and noble principles of God, truth, righteousness and justice, there can be no liberty, no peace, no prosperity, no happiness in any earthly government—if these are sacrificed or ignored, God will overturn and keep overturning, until mankind learn his truth, justice and mercy, and conform to them.

To the people of the South, we say, obedience to God is better than all sacrifices. You have sacrificed all your negroes. It was your ancestors, that God made use of to form this noblest of all human governments—no others could do it. Do not be cast down at what has happened, and what is yet to happen—God will yet use you to reinstate and remodel this government, on its just and noble principles and at the proper time. The North can never do it. These are perilous times—the impending decisions will be against you, and against God. But keep yourselves free from this sin—do not by your acts, nor by your votes, invite the negro equality—if it is forced upon you, as it will be—obey the laws—remembering that God will protect the righteous; and that his truth, like itself, will always be consistent, and like its Author, will be always and forever triumphant. The finger of God is in this. Trust him. The Bible is true.

July, 1840.

December, 1866. ARIEL.

Note 1. Any candid scholar, wishing to address the writer, is informed, that any letter addressed to "Ariel," care of Messrs. Payne, James & Co., Nashville, Tennessee, during this summer and fall (1867), will reach him and command his attention.

Note 2. Some few kinky-headed negroes, have been found embalmed on the Nile, but the inscriptions on their sarcophagii, fully explain who they were, and how they came to be there. They were generally negro traders from the interior of the country, and of much later dates.