How is it that one nation acquires dominion over another? that one nation falls a prey to another? that one nation makes slaves of another?  By what means were the posterity of Shem and Japheth enabled to enslave the posterity of Ham?  Some will say that God willed it thus, and so it is.  I consider the phraseology of this answer faulty.  It would, in my view, be more appropriate to say, God suffered it; or permitted it; and so it is.  I do not believe that Ham’s crimes were in accordance with the benevolent designs of Providence.  The degradation and slavery entailed upon his posterity, was but a necessary consequence of his crimes, a just judgment, which a righteous God suffered to fall on his posterity.  It was a violation of God’s laws, which involved the African race in accursed slavery.  God has attached certain punishments to the violation of certain laws, in other words, to the commission of certain crimes.  The law is violated, otherwise, the crime is committed, and the penalty, or punishment falls on the head of the offender.  Now all this is brought about in opposition to the will of God; for when God gave laws, he willed that man should obey those laws.  If he says, “son honor thy father,” and the son dishonors his father, he acts in opposition to God’s will.  And to secure obedience to his laws, and uphold moral order, he has attached to every crime its appropriate punishment.

But every effect has a cause, and if one nation acquires an ascendancy over another, there is a reason in the nature of things, why it is so.  There are reasons why individuals differ, and why they are found under different circumstances and conditions in this world.  Why one becomes poor and another rich; why one acquires wealth and influence, while another becomes poor, indigent and miserable—­it may be a slave to his wealthy neighbor.  There is an internal cause; a constitutional difference in individuals, physically, mentally, and morally.  So it is with nations.  Locality, climate and other external causes have also had much agency in shaping and moulding the characters, and determining the destinies of nations.  Nothing is more true than the trite saying, “that knowledge is power.”  The Author of our existence, “the giver of every good and perfect gift,” conferred on Shem and Japheth, or rather, on their posterity, superior mental endowments.  The African and the Anglo-Saxon races differ widely in their physical organizations; their mental susceptibilities, and their moral natures; and the advantages are in favor of the Anglo-Saxon.  The Anglo-Saxons are a superior race.  They are the best specimens of humanity—­the noblest work of God.  They excel in all those qualities and endowments that raise man above his fellow man.  The whole posterity of Shem and Japheth are intellectually superior to the posterity of Ham.  Locality has had its influence.  The human species degenerate mentally and morally in a tropical climate.