598 LOUIS AGASSIZ, 



eign to the Indian, while they facilitate in 

 every way the increase of the negro. I infer, 

 therefore, from all these circumstances that 

 the negro race must be considered as perma- 

 nently settled upon this continent, no less 

 firmly than the white race,* and that it is our 

 duty to look upon them as co-tenants in the 

 possession of this part of the world. 



Remember that I have thus far presented 

 the case only with reference to the Southern 

 States, where the cKmate is particularly favor- 

 able to the maintenance and multiplication of 

 the negro race. Before drawing any infer- 

 ence, however, from my first assertion that 

 the negro will easily and without foreign as- 

 sistance maintain himself and multiply in the 

 warmer parts of this continent, let us consider 

 a few other features of this momentous ques- 

 tion of race. Whites and blacks may multi- 

 ply together, but their offspring is never 

 either white or black ; it is always mulatto. 

 It is a half-breed, and shares all the peculiari- 

 ties of half-breeds, among whose most impor- 

 tant characteristics is their sterility, or at least 

 their reduced fecundity. This shows the con- 

 nection to be contrary to the normal state of 

 the races, as it is contrary to the preservation 

 of species in the animal kingdom. . . . Far 



