elaborate and mighty array of fact, of learned and imposing authority appealed to, and the fatiguing if not unwarrantable argument put forward, made it, and still make it difficult to reply to them or to disprove their assumptions. Any question, no matter what its nature, or however deficient in the elements of truth, still admits of argument, and falsehood may often lead astray the reason even when the judgment itself is convinced to the contrary. And these European advocates of the dogma of a single race have such a boundless field for discussion, can so bewilder and fatigue the reason as well as pervert the imagination by their plausible arguments, drawn from the analysis of animal life, that it is not wonderful they should lead astray the popular mind; nor is it surprising that those among us claiming to be men of science should bow to their authority, for though common sense rejects their arguments, there are few of sufficient mental independence to withstand that authority, when backed up by such an imposing array of distinguished names. But the strong common sense that distinguishes our people will not be, indeed, cannot be, deceived on this subject. The American or the Southern knows that the Negro is a Negro, and is not a Caucasian, just as clearly, absolutely and unmistakably as he knows that black is black and is not white, that a man is a man and is not a woman—that a pigeon is a pigeon and is not a robin—or a shad a shad and not a salmon. He sees negro parents have negro offspring; that Indians have Indian offspring; and that whites have white offspring, “each after its kind,” with the same regularity, uniformity and perfect certainty that is witnessed in all other forms of existence. There is not a white man or woman in the Union who, if told of such a thing as white parents with negro offspring, or negroes with white offspring, would believe it, even if sworn to by a million of witnesses. Such a belief or such a conception would be as monstrous, and indeed impossible, as to suppose that robins had begotten pigeons or horses asses. And the constant witnessing of this—this undeviating and perpetual order in the economy of animal life, demonstrates the specific character of the Negro beyond doubt or possible mistake. Irishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, etc., come here, settle down, become citizens, and their offspring born and raised on American soil differ in no appreciable or perceptible manner from other Americans. But Negroes may have been brought here three centuries ago, and their offspring of to-day is exactly as it was then, as absolutely and specifically unlike the American as when the race first touched the soil and first breathed the air of the New World. It is not intended, as already observed, to argue this matter, for it is a palpable and unavoidable fact that Negroes are a separate species; and though in succeeding chapters of this work the specific qualities are