Now “mediocrity is enthroned,” and the Southern question is the free negro question; a reversal has been made—the body politic has had its feet up and its head down. The author seems to see nothing but the race question: the law of animal life, where the strong destroy the weak, is the highest law he can think of for its solution; where a weak race comes in contact with a stronger, it must merge into it, or “subserve its interests and prejudices,” or be wiped out of existence, and Providence so orders it. “There will never be peace and prosperity in the Southern States, as long as Caucasian supremacy shall be opposed there;” but, “we intend to control the negro vote by superior intelligence, by persuasion, and not by violence.” Equal opportunity for education should, he thinks, be given to the blacks; but they should be discouraged from all “aspirations and efforts which will end in disappointment,” [and this is the sentiment, also, of so earnest a worker as Col. Preston of Va.]; “and hasten a more active and deadly struggle.” It will be a surprise, we doubt not, and a disappointment to many of our Northern friends, to find that such views, especially those of the admirably-written article in the _North American Review_, still constitute the substratum of thought among the cultivated classes of the Southern States. For what such men as this accomplished writer think in their bed-chambers, finds very different and much grosser expression among men of coarser fibre and ruder touch. We do remember that the last two writers quoted, are from the two longest and most sorely troubled States, where sentiment is probably more extreme than elsewhere in the South; and we hope, indeed, to some extent we know, that there are many of the natives of these States, who are not represented by these views, but who have freed themselves from the dominion of the old ideas of race-rule and caste prejudice. But we are glad to see these free discussions, and from these varying standpoints. We are pleased to see that education is still not absolutely denied in them, though the motives for its acquirement are largely taken away. But we suggest to our co-workers in this field that, even though the various States in which these freedmen live, are, and have been, extending the advantages of their public schools to children of the blacks, yet, with such sentiments deep-seated in the minds of the educated, and so the influential class, this provision is uncertain, and may be at any time diminished or withdrawn. The substantial foundation for the permanent and patient work of the education of the negro, must be in the minds and hearts of those who believe in his manhood and in his education, for some sufficient use.