Mixed Race Studies

CONCLUSIONS.

In the preceding pages, the author has endeavored to make plain the following propositions, and, as they are the very reverse of those laid down by the author of “Miscegenation,” he adopts the mode of that writer in summing up, in order the more successfully to present the contrast:

1. That as by the teachings of science, religion, and democracy the human family is composed of different races or species, distinct in color and other physical as well as mental peculiarities, it follows that there should be distinctions in political and social rights, corresponding with such physical and mental differences.
2. That the doctrine of human brotherhood should be accepted in its entirety in the United States, and that it implies the equality of all whom God has created equal, and the inequality of all whom He has made unequal.
3. That a solution of the negro problem will not have been reached in this country until public opinion universally sanctions negro Subgenation.
4. That, as the negro ought not to be driven out of the country or exterminated, and as for wise purposes he has been placed side by side with the white race, there should be severe laws passed punishing any sexual intercourse between the race.
5. That the mingling of diverse races, or Miscegenation, is a positive injury to the progeny, producing a weaker and a hybrid race, which rapidly perishes, as proved by the history of all nations, from that of Egypt to this day.
6. That, as the war has been caused by the Miscegenationists striving to force their revolting and disgusting doctrines on the people of the South, it follows that perfect peace and Union can soonest be restored to our country by the North adopting negro Subgenation at once, by each State amending its Constitution to that effect, and then accepting the Confederate Constitution as the basis of a Federal Government.
7. That it is the duty of Democrats everywhere to advocate Subgenation, or the normal relation of the races on this continent, as a great humanitarian reform.
8. That as the last Presidential election was carried by the Miscegenationists, and has brought four years of blood, suffering, and untold taxation upon the country, the next Presidential election should be carried by the Subgenationists, who will thus restore order, peace, and commercial prosperity.
9. That a society founded on Subgenation produces the highest type of mankind—the most consummate statesmen and generals, the highest type of womanhood, and the most exalted morality and virtue.
10. That the Millennial future is to be ushered in through a complete understanding of the laws of Subgenation, by which an equality of condition is to become universal—thus realizing the instinct of an equality of creation; and that whoever helps to achieve this result, helps to make the human family the sooner realize its great destiny.

John H. Van Evrie, Subgenation: The Theory of the Normal Relation of the Races; an Answer to “Miscegenation,” (New York: John Bradburn Publishing, 1864): 67-69.

The writer of “Miscegenation” considers it a most providential event, and as one significant of the type-man or miscegens of the future, that the statue on the dome of the Capitol at Washington is of a “bronze tint.” But it is possible that he mistakes its significance. As has been shown in these pages, the mixed or mongrel people perish, and are blotted from the face of the earth. The Egyptians, the Carthagenians, and now the Mexicans, are historical examples of God’s punishment upon those who dare to mar the works of His creation. The dome of the Capitol, therefore, with its mulatto statue, has the symbol of decay upon it, and it would seem to constantly point to the triumph of the Confederate or White Constitution in the place of the mongrelized one which the folly of the hour has deified.

John H. Van Evrie, Subgenation: The Theory of the Normal Relation of the Races; an Answer to “Miscegenation,” (New York: John Bradburn Publishing, 1864): 67.

Subgenation: The Theory of the Normal Relation of the Races; an Answer to “Miscegenation”

John Bradburn Publishing
1864
72 pages
Classification Number: CAGE E185.62.V24 1864

John H. Van Evrie (1814-1896)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• I.—The Diversity of the Races.
• II.—Miscegenation; or, the Mixture of the Races.
• III.—The Future of the Races.
• IV.—The Effect of Subgenation Upon the White Race.
• V.—Subgenation, the Basis of Democracy.
• VI.—Women and Subgenation.
• VII.—Subgenation and the Presidential Election.
• VIII.— The Recognition of the Confederate States.
• IX.—The Millennium Solved.
• X.—An Omen.

Introduction

Scaliger quaintly observes “that nothing will sell better than a scurrile pamphlet,” and the extensive sale of a recent brochure, entitled “Miscegenation,” in which the most indecent doctrines are seductively inculcated under the garb of philosophy, seems to prove the assertion. While there is no excuse for the gross violation of natural instincts which that author recommends, yet there is probably some good reason why there is a want of a popular knowledge as to the true relation of the races. The juxtaposition of the Caucasian, Indian, and Negro races on this continent, in considerable numbers, has no parallel in history. If we except the Egyptians and the Carthagenians, there were no ancient nations which had other than a homogeneous population. A negro was a curiosity in Greece and Rome.   All modern Europe, from which we derive our language, is composed of one race or the varieties of it. The question, as to the proper relation of distinct races, is, therefore, a new one, and has been committed to this country for solution.

The writer to whom allusion has been made offers a solution, and it is no less a proposition than the annihilation of all the existing races and the formation of a new one! He proposes to bring this about by mingling the races, and has invented the word Miscegenation to express his idea (miscere, to mix; genus, a race). The suggestion of the word is a good one. The necessity of new terms to express the proper, as well as the improper, relation of the races on this continent has long been felt by thoughtful minds. The words slavery and slave are derived from Sclavi—Sclavonians, who were conquered by the Germans and reduced to abject bondage. The word, therefore, expresses a relation existing between persons of the same race, and not between those of different races. Hence it is a misnomer as applied to the American form of society. The present writer proposes to profit by the suggestion of the author of of “Miscegenation” and coin another word, long needed.  It is subgenation, from sub, lower, and generatus and genus, a race born or created lower than another; i.e., the natural or normal relation of an inferior to a superior race. The invention of new words has the high authority of Horace:

“Si forte necesse est
Indiciis monstrare recentribus abdita rerum.”

They were never so much needed as now. The simple truths—There is no slavery in this country; there are no slaves in the Southern States. We are fighting about a myth. For three centuries the Christian world was deluged in blood upon the assumption that there was a Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. There was no Holy Sepulchre there. The world was fighting on a false premise. This country is now repeating the same insensate folly.  In the following pages the writer proposes to show how and why this is so, to expose the errors and absurdities of the author of “Miscegenation,” and to give such a solution to the question of the proper relation of the races as shall commend itself to the conscience 0f every intelligent friend of Humanity…

Read the entire book here.