Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Nott, J.C., and Gliddon, George R. Types of Mankind: or, Ethnological Researches, Based Upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races, and upon their Natural, Geographical, Philosophical, and Biblical History.... Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co.; London: Trubner and Co., 1854.

J.C. Nott and George R. Gliddon. Types of Mankind: or, Ethnological Researches, Based Upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races, and upon their Natural, Geographical, Philosophical, and Biblical History.... Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co.; London: Trubner and Co., 1854. Title page.

Nott and Gliddon trumpeted the “Caucasian races” for alone being able to travel to and colonize “all parts of the globe.”

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These facts prove conclusively that the Creator has marked out both the Old and New Worlds into distinct zoological provinces, and that Faunae and Florae are independent of climate or other known physical causes; while it is equally clear that in this geographical distribution there is evidence of a Plan — of a design ruling the climatic conditions themselves.

It is very remarkable, too, that while the races of men, and the Fauna and Flora of the Arctic region, present great uniformity, they follow in the different continents the same general law of increasing dissimilarity as we recede from the Arctic and go South, irrespective of climate. We have already shown that, as we pass down through America, Asia, and Africa, the farther we travel the greater is the dissimilarity of their Fauna and Florae, to their very terminations, even when compared together in the same latitudes or zones; and an examination will show, that differences of types in the human family become more strongly marked as we recede from the Polar regions, and reach their greatest extremes at those terminating points of continents where they are most widely separated by distance, although occupying nearly the same parallels of latitude, and nearly the same climates. For instance, the Fuegians of Cape Horn, the Hottentots and Bushmen of the Cape of Good Hope, and the inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land, are the tribes which, under similar parallels, differ most. Such differences of races are scarcely less marked in the Tropics of the earth; as testified by the Negro in Africa, the Indian in America, and the Papuan in Polynesia. In the Temperate zone, we have in the Old World the Mongolians and the Caucasians, no less than the Indians in America, living in similar climates, yet wholly dissimilar themselves.

History, traditions, monuments, osteological remains, every literary record and scientific induction, all show that races have occupied substantially the same zones or provinces from time immemorial. Since the discovery of the mariner’s compass, mankind have been more disturbed in their primitive seats; and, with the increasing facilities of communication by land and sea, it is impossible to predict what changes coming ages may bring forth. The Caucasian races, which have always been the representatives of civilization, are those alone that have extended over and colonized all parts of the globe; and much of this is the work of the last three hundred years. The Creator has implanted in this group of races an instinct that, in spite of themselves, drives them through all difficulties, to carry out their great mission of civilizing the earth. It is not reason, or philanthropy, which urges them on; but it is destiny. When we see great divisions of the human family increasing in numbers, spreading in all directions, encroaching by degrees upon all other races wherever they can live and prosper, and gradually supplanting inferior types, is it not reasonable to conclude that they are fulfilling a law of nature?

We have always maintained diversity of origin for the whole range of organized beings. If it be granted, as it is on all hands, that there have been many centres of creation, instead of one, what reason is there to suppose that any one race of animals has sprung from a single pair, instead of being the natural production of many pairs? And, as was written by us many years ago, “if it be conceded that there were two primitive pairs of human beings, no reason can be assigned why there may not have been hundreds.”

Agassiz thus expresses himself: —

“Under such circumstances, we should ask if we are not entitled to conclude that these races must have originated where they occur, as well as the animals and plants inhabiting the same countries, and have originated there in the same numerical proportions and over the same area in which they now occur; for these conditions are the conditions necessary to their maintenance, and what among organized beings is essential to their temporal existence must be at least one of the conditions under which they were created.

“We maintain that, like all organized beings, mankind cannot have originated in single individuals, but must have been created in that numerical harmony which is characteristic of each species. Men must have originated in nations, as the bees have originated in swarms, and, as the different social plants, have covered the extensive tracts over which they have naturally spread.”

We remarked, in the commencement of this chapter, that M. Agassiz had presented his views in such a condensed and irrefragable manner, that it would be impossible to attempt a resume, or to do him justice without repeating the whole of his article; but although we have already borrowed freely, we cannot refrain from a concluding paragraph, our object being rather to give a synopsis, or “posting up” to date, of facts illustrative of our subject, than to claim any great originality: if we can bring the truth out, our goal is attained.

“The circumstance that wherever we find a human race naturally circumscribed, it is connected in its limitation with what we call, in natural history, a zoological and botanical province — that is to say, with the natural limitations of a particular association of animals and plants — shows most unequivocally the intimate relation existing between mankind and the animal kingdom in their adaptation to the physical world. The Arctic race of men, covering a treeless region near the Arctics in Europe, Asia, and America, is circumscribed, in the three continents, within limits very similar to those occupied by that particular combination of animals which are peculiar to the same tracts of land and sea.

“The region inhabited by the Mongolian race is also a natural zoological province, covered by a combination of animals naturally circumscribed within the some regions. The Malay race covers also a natural zoological province. New Holland again constitutes a very peculiar zoological province, in which we have another particular race of men. And it is further remarkable, in this connection, that the plants and animals now living on the continent of Africa south of Atlas, within the same range within which the Negroes are naturally circumscribed, have a character differing widely from that of the plants and animals of the northern shores of Africa and the valley of Egypt; while the Cape of Good Hope, within the limits inhabited by Hottentots, is characterized by a vegetation and a Fauna equally peculiar, and differing in its features from that over which the African race is spread.

“Such identical circumscriptions between the limits of two series of organized beings so widely differing in men and animals and plants, and so entirely unconnected in point of descent, would, to the mind of the naturalist, amount to a demonstration that they originated together within the districts which they now inhabit. We say that such an accumulation of evidence would amount to demonstration; for how could it, on the contrary. be supposed that man alone would assume new peculiarities and features so different from his primitive characteristics, whilst the animals and plants circumscribed within the same limits would continue to preserve their natural relations to the Fauna and Flora of other parts of the world? If the Creator of one set of these living beings had not also been the Creator of the other, and if we did not trace the same general laws throughout nature, there might be room left for the supposition that, while men inhabiting different parts of the world originated from a common centre, the plants and animals associated with them in the some countries originated on the spot. But such inconsistencies do not occur in the laws of nature.

“The coincidence of the geographical distribution of the human races with that of animals, the disconnection of the climatic conditions where we have similar races, and the connection of climatic conditions where we have different human races, shows further, that the adaptation of different races of men to different parts of the world must be intentional, as well as that of other beings; that men were primitively located in the various parts of the world they inhabit, and that they arose everwhere [sic] in those harmonious numeric proportions with other living beings which would at once secure their preservation and contribute to their welfare. To suppose that all men originated from Adam and Eve, is to assume that the order of creation has been changed in the course of historical times, and to give to the Mosaic record a meaning that it was never intended to have. On that ground, we would particularly insist upon the propriety of considering Genesis as chiefly relating to the history of the white race, with special reference to the history of the Jews.”

Zoologically, the races or species of mankind obey the same organic laws which govern other animals: they have their geographical points of origin, and are adapted to certain external conditions that cannot be changed with impunity. The natives of one zone cannot always be transferred to another without deteriorating physically and mentally. Races, too, are governed by certain psychological influences, which differ among the species of mankind as instincts vary among the species of lower animals. These psychological characteristics form part of the great mysteries of human nature. They seem often to work in opposition to the physical necessities of races, and to drive individuals and nations beyond the confines of human reason. We see around us, daily, individuals obeying blindly their psychological instincts; and one nation reads of the causes which have led to the decline and fall of other empires without profiting by the lesson.

The laws of God operate not through a few thousand years, but throughout eternity, and we cannot always perceive the why or wherefore of what passes in our brief day. Nations and races, like individuals, have each an especial destiny: some are born to rule, and others to be ruled. And such has ever been the history of mankind. No two distinctly-marked races can dwell together on equal terms. I Some races, moreover, appear destined to live and prosper for a time, until the destroying race comes, which is to exterminate and supplant them. Observe how the aborigines of America are fading away before the exotic races of Europe.

These groups of races heretofore comprehended under the generic term Caucasian, have in all ages been the rulers; and it requires no prophet’s eye to see that they are destined eventually to conquer and hold every foot of the globe where climate does not interpose an impenetrable barrier. No philanthropy, no legislation, no missionary labors, can change this law: it is written in man’s nature by the hand of his Creator.

While the mind thus speculates on the physical history of races and the more or less speedy extermination of some of them, other problems start. up in the distance, of which the solution is far beyond the reach of human foresight. We have already hinted at the mysterious disappearance of many great races and nations of antiquity.

When the inferior types of mankind shall have fulfilled their destinies and passed away, and the superior, becoming intermingled in blood, have wandered from their primitive zoological provinces, and overspread the world, what will be the ultimate result? May not that Law of nature, which so often forbids the commingling of species, complete its work of destruction, and at some future day leave the fossil remains alone of man to tell the tale of his past existence upon earth?