go out of its province, and stretch its constitution, so as to set the most significant precedent which can he imagined, in favour of this destructive doctrine?
But this is not all. Thoughtful men see in this pet of tyranny and oppression, to the edge of which the negro and his allies now urge us, "beneath the lowest depth, a lower deep still opening wide." It is a result which, we well know, the astute architects of our ruin clearly foresee and intend; and for the procuring of which they provide, when they implore the political equality of the negro, with a cunning inspired by their own master, the devil. They know mankind, in its weaknesses and baseness. They have measured accurately the degrading effects of subjugation, of poverty, of grinding oppression, of despair, upon a people once chivalrous. They know that where the ruling mob is, there must be the demagogue; even as the vulture comes where the carcass is; and they know the bottomless subserviency of the demagogue. They understand the ever increasing assumption of the negro's character, growing by its indulgence. Hence the safe calculation, that when once political equality is confirmed to the blacks, every influence will tend towards that other consummation, social equality, which they will be so keen to demand, and their demagogues so ready to grant, as the price of their votes. Why, sir, the negroes recently elected in, my own section, to represent in the pretended convention, districts once graced by Henry and Randolph, are already impudently demanding it. He must be "innocent" indeed, who does not see whither all this tends, as it is designed by our oppressors to terminate. It is (shall I pronounce the abhorred word?) to amalgamation! Yes, sir, these tyrants know that if they can mix the race of Washington, and Lee, and Jackson, with this base herd which they brought from the pens of Africa; if they can taint the blood which hallowed the plains of Manassas, with this sordid stream, the adulterous current will never again swell a Virginian's heart with a throb noble enough to make a despot tremble. But they will then have, for all time, a race supple and grovelling enough for all the purposes of oppression. We have before our eyes, in Mexico, the proof and illustration of the satanic wisdom of their plan. There we saw a splendid colonial empire, first blighted by abolition; then a frantic spirit of levelling, declaring the equality of the coloured races with the Spaniard; and last, the mixture of the Castilian blood—the grandest of all the Gothic—resulting in the mongrel rabble which is now the shame and plague of that wretched land.
Such is the danger which is now before us. Let no one say that these fears are visionary. Wise and sober statesmen do not think so. Ask those who know mankind, who know the springs of political action, and the power of its passions; they will tell you that if such counsels are to rule as have been insinuated here, the danger is real and near. Impartial and intelligent spectators abroad do not think my warning visionary. The London Times, in a well considered leader, declared that a gradual mixture of blood was the obvious end to which present influences tended.
In view of this, our christian people looked fondly to their beloved Church, as a last bulwark against this tide of shame and misery. But now they are told that this too must be levelled; levelled by the hands
