e the cause what it may, notwithstanding
the great number of excellent people included in that population,
no one can for a moment doubt who will consider that with them an
element exists which is to some extent positive, and that is the
fact of there being more than half as many mulattoes as blacks,
forming, as they do, 36-1/4 per cent. of the whole Colored
population, and they are maternally descendants of the Colored
race, as it is well known that no appreciable amount of this
admixture is the result of marriage between white and black, or
the progeny of white mothers--a fact showing that whatever
deterioration may be the consequence of this alloyage, is
incurred by the Colored race. Where such a proportion of the
mixed race exists, it may reasonably be inferred that the
barriers to license are not more insuperable among those of the
same color. That corruption of morals progresses with greater
admixture of races, and that the product of vice stimulates the
propensity to immorality, is as evident to observation as it is
natural to circumstances. These developments of the census, to a
good degree, explain the slow progress of the free Colored
population in the Northern States, and indicate, with unerring
certainty, the gradual extinction of that people the more rapidly
as, whether free or slave, they become diffused among the
dominant race. There are, however, other causes, although in
themselves not sufficient to account for the great excess of
deaths over births, as is found to occur in some Northern cities,
and these are such as are incident to incongenial climate and a
condition involving all the exposures and hardships which
accompany a people of lower caste. As but two censuses have been
taken which discriminate between the blacks and mulattoes, it is
not yet so easy to determine how far the admixture of the races
affects their vital power; but the developments already made
would indicate that the mingling of the races is more unfavorable
to vitality, than a condition of slavery, which practically
ignores marriage to the exclusion of the admixture of races, has
proved, for among the slaves the natural increase has been as
high as three per cent. per annum, and ever more than two per
cent., while the proportion of mulattoes at the presen