Frederick Douglass, Esq.:
Dear Sir:—
Communipaw says (August 6) "Professor Allen overwhelms me." Well, I am glad he has owned up. He asks, further, "If the Jews of old were a mixed race, as he says, (July 30,) how are the modern Jews a "single race," as cited by him in the same paper? That is, how can you mix wine, gin, and water, and after a thousand years, the resultant be pure water? Now this sounds very astute and cunning, but it is pure sophism, and nothing more. Communipaw does not deny that the ancient Jews were a mixed race; my answer to his query, therefore, is this simply: the modern Jews are not a mixed race, because they do not intermarry with other races, nor in any way mingle their blood with the blood of other races. Communipaw asks further, "What does the Professor mean by a "single race!" My reply to this query is this simply: by a "single race," I mean a race which does not intermarry with other races, nor in any way mingle its blood with the blood of other races. Communipaw further asks, if I can make out that there is "a single race of mankind in contradistinction to any other, or all other races of mankind?" My reply at this point, is this simply: I can make out no such thing; and, further, have never, at any time, written any article which implies any intention or desire, on my part, to make out any such thing, as no one better knowns than Communipaw. "Of one blood are all the nations of earty created." Here is a plain statement of the oneness of race of all mankind; and yet no one better knows than Communipaw, that, on entering the field of ethnography, we are compelled, for scientific purposes, to speak of "this race," and "that race" of "mixed races," and so on down to the end of the chapter. Communipaw further states that the "Chinese are a mixed race." So, I would reply, are the Anglo-Saxons a mixed race also; and yet if a nation of Anglo-Saxons were to shut themselves up for hundreds and hundreds of years, refusing to receive foreigners among them, and to intermarry with them, the common sense of mankind would decide, that for all the purposes of an enthnographical discussion, they, (the Anglo-Saxons,) under the circumstances, might properly be called a "single race." Indeed, if this view of the subject be not adopted, we talk nonsense when we talk of the "African," the "Celtic," the "Mongolian," or the "Saxon" race, or any race whatever, save the HUMAN race. But I will prolong this discussion on my part. It cannot amount to no more on either side than a war of words, since, as to the theory mooted, Communipaw and myself hold precisely the same opinion. I say this in full confidence; for I know who Communipaw is and have read his opinions when he was not trying his skill at raising a point.