The Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, in All AgesBarnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor)
General
The Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, in All Ages
Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor)
Impostors and imposture
"The sympathy Mr. Greeley, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Tilton feel for the
negro is the love which the blonde bears for the black; it is the
love of race, a sympathy stronger to them than the love they bear
to woman. It is founded upon natural law. We love our opposites. It
is the nature of things that we should do so, and where Nature has
free course, men like those we have indicated, whether Anti-Slavery
or Pro-Slavery, Conservative or Radical, Democrat or Republican,
will marry and be given in marriage to the most perfect specimens
of the colored race."
So far, things worked favorably; and, having thus bagged a goodly number
of prominent reformers, the next effort was to get the ear of the
public. Here, new machinery was brought into play. A statement was
published in the "Philadelphia Inquirer" (a paper which, ever since the
war commenced, has been notorious for its "sensation" news,) that a
charming and accomplished young mulatto girl was about to publish a book
on the subject of the blending of the races, in which she took the
affirmative view. Of course, so piquant a paragraph was immediately
copied by almost every paper in the country. Various other stories,
equally ingenious and equally groundless, were set afloat, and public
expectation was riveted on the forthcoming work.
Some time in February last, the book was published. Copies, of course,
were sent to all the leading journals. The "Anglo-African," the organ of
the colored population of New York, warmly, and at great length,
indorsed the doctrine. The "Anti-Slavery Standard," edited by Mr. Oliver
Johnson, gave over a column of serious argument and endorsement to the
work. Mr. Tilton, of the "Independent," was not to be caught napping.
In that journal, under date of February 25, 1864, he devoted a
two-column leader to the subject of Miscegenation and the little
pamphlet in question. Mr. Tilton was the first to announce a belief that
the book was a hoax. I quote from his article:
"Remaining a while on our table unread, our attention was specially
called to it by noticing how savagely certain newspapers were
abusing it."
* * * * *
"The authorship of the pamphlet is a well-kept secret; at least it
is unknown to us. Nor, after a somewhat careful reading, are we
convinced that the writer is in earnest. Our first impression was,
and remains, that the work was meant as a piece of pleasantry--a
burlesque upon what are popularly called the extreme and fanatical
notions of certain radical men named therein. Certainly, the essay
is not such a one as any of these gentlemen would have written on
the subject, though some of their speeches are conspicuously quoted
and commended in it."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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