Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Squier, Epraim G. The States of Central America; their Geography, Topography, Climate, Population, Resources, Productions, Commerce, Political Organization, Aborigines, etc, etc.... London: Sampson Low, Son, and Co.; New York: Harper and Brothers, 1858.

Ephraim G. Squier. The States of Central America; their Geography, Topography, Climate, Population, Resources, Productions, Commerce, Political Organization, Aborigines, etc., etc.... London: Sampson Low, Son, and Co.; New York: Harper and Brothers, 1858. Title page.

Squier joined many other writers of the 1850s in stressing not any cultural mutuality arising from global commerce, but principally the influence of white Anglo-Saxonism upon the world.

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From the foregoing facts and observations, it may be deduced generally that Central America is relatively the most populous portion of Spanish America; that, while its population is increasing in a constant and rapid ratio, the exotic or European element is not only decreasing relatively, but in fact; and that the direct tendency of things is to its speedy absorption in the indigenous or aboriginal races. In this respect, as indeed in its moral and intellectual condition, Central America, not less than all Spanish America, seems to furnish a striking illustration of the laws which have been established as the results of anthropological inquiries during the past fifty years. Neither the statesman nor political economist can safely overlook or disregard these results, since, by the course of events, and the multiplication of means and facilities of communication, nations and races are more and more brought in contact, and the question of the nature and character of their relationship made of immediate and practical importance.

It may be claimed without hesitation that the wide physical, intellectual, and moral differences which all history and observation have distinguished as existing between the various families of man, can be no longer regarded as the consequences of accident or circumstances; that is to say, it has come to be understood that their physical, moral, and intellectual traits are radical and permanent, and that there can be no admixture of widely-separated families, or of superior with inferior races, which can be harmonious, or otherwise than disastrous in its consequences. Anthropological science has determined the existence of two laws of vital importance in their application to men and nations:

First. That in all cases where a free amalgamation takes place between two different stocks, unrestrained by what is sometimes called prejudice, but which is, in fact, a natural instinct, the result is the final and absolute absorption of one in the other. This absorption is more rapid as the races or families thus brought in contact approximate in type, and in proportion as one or the other preponderates in numbers; that is to say, Nature perpetuates no human hybrids, as, for instance, a permanent race of mulattoes.

Second. That all violations of the natural distinctions of race, or of those instincts which were designed to perpetuate the superior races in their purity, invariably entail the most deplorable results, affecting the bodies, intellects, and moral perceptions of the nations who are thus blind to the wise designs of Nature, and unmindful of her laws. In other words, the offspring of such combinations or amalgamations are not only generally deficient in physical constitution, in intellect, and in moral restraint, but to a degree which often contrasts unfavorably with any of the original stocks.

In no respect are these deficiencies more obvious than in matters affecting government. We need only point to the anarchical states of Spanish America to verify the truth of the propositions here laid down. In Central and South America, and Mexico, we find a people not only demoralized from the unrestrained association of different races, but also the superior stocks becoming gradually absorbed in the lower, and their institutions disappearing under the relative barbarism of which the latter are the exponents. If existing causes and conditions continue to operate, many years can not pass before some of these countries will have relapsed into a state not far removed from that in which they were found at the period of the conquest.

In Mexico there are less than two millions of whites, or of persons having a preponderance of white blood, out of a population of eight millions; in Central America, less than two hundred thousand out of two millions; and in South America at large, the proportions are nearly the same. It is impossible, while conceding all the influence which can be rationally claimed for other causes, to resist the conviction that the disasters which have befallen those countries are due to a grand practical misconception of the just relations of the races which compose them. The Indian does not possess, still less the South Sea Islander, and least of all the negro, the capacity to comprehend the principles which enter into the higher order of civil and political organizations. His instincts and his habits are inconsistent with their development, and no degree of education can teach him to understand and practice them.

In the Sandwich Islands there are about 60,000 natives still remaining. It may be alleged that they have constituted and sustained a regular government, and have thus evinced the requisite conditions to enter into the great family of nations. But it is notorious that, whatever there exists of government, both in its origin and administration, is the work of foreigners and of white men.

To the Indians upon our southwestern border these remarks are scarcely less applicable. Under no circumstances have the North American Indians exhibited an appreciation of the value, or a disposition to abide by the reciprocal obligations involved in a government of the people. Their ideas of government, like those of the Arabs, and the nomadic hordes of Central Asia, are only consonant with the system called patriarchal: ideas which, at this day and in this country, are not only wholly inapplicable, but antagonistic to those upon which our system is founded. The only instance in which they have made a sensible progress in the right direction is that of the Cherokees, under the guidance of chiefs in whose veins flows a predominance of European blood. And while it may be admitted that the Indians of the old Floridian stock are in all respects superior to the islanders of the Pacific, yet neither in industry, docility, or traditional deference to authority are they equal to the Indian families of Mexico and Central America, where the attempt to put the latter on a political and social footing with the white man has entailed eternal anarchy, and threatens a complete dissolution of the political body.

In Guatemala, as in Yucatan, it has brought about a bloody and cruel war of castes, and a complete prostration of civil and religious liberty. Not less disastrous has been the result in Mexico, while in Jamaica savage nature is fast resuming her dominion over deserted plantations, and the woods begin to swarm with half-naked negroes, living upon the indigenous fruits of the soil, and already scarcely one degree removed from their original barbarism in Africa.

To the understanding of intelligent and reflecting men, who are superior to the partisan and sectional issues of the hour, these considerations can not fail to appeal with controlling force; for if the United States, as compared with the Spanish American republics, has achieved an immeasurable advance in all the elements of greatness, that result is eminently due to the rigid and inexorable refusal of the dominant Teutonic stock to debase its blood, impair its intellect, lower its moral standard, or peril its institutions by intermixture with the inferior and subordinate races of man. In obedience to the ordinances of Heaven, it has rescued half a continent from savage beasts and still more savage men, whose period of existence has terminated, and who must give place to higher organizations and a superior life. Short-sighted philanthropy may lament, and sympathy drop a tear as it looks forward to the total disappearance of the lower forms of humanity, but the laws of Nature are irreversible. Deus vult — it is the will of God!

From this point of view, it appears that the only hope of Central America consists in averting the numerical decline of its white population, and increasing that element in the composition of its people. If not brought about by a judicious encouragement of emigration or an intelligent system of colonization, the geographical position and resources of the country indicate that the end will be attained by those more violent means, which among men, as in the material world, often anticipate the slower operations of natural laws. To avert the temporary yet often severe shocks which they occasion, by providing for the necessities of the future, is the true mission, and should be the highest aim of the patriot and statesman. Central America will be fortunate if she shall be found to number among her sons men adequate to the comprehension and control of the circumstances under which she is placed, and which are every day becoming more complicated and exigent.