Diary of Edward Bates, Saturday, April 29, 1859

This is the anniversary of my arrival in St Louis, 45 years ago — Apl. 29, 1814. Then, I was a ruddy youth, of 20, now I am a swarthy old man of 65, with a grey beard, and a head beginning to grow bald. In that lapse of time, I have witnessed mighty changes in population, locomotion, commerce and the arts; and the change is still going on, with a growing impetus. And every year adds to the relative importance of the Central position of St Louis. Already, it is the focal point of the great Valley, and, in course of time, will become the seat of Empire in North America. I will soon sink into oblivion, but St Louis — the village in which I studied law — will become the seat of wealth and power — the ruling city of the continent. "Slavery, Ethnologically Considered "

The New York Saturday Press of Feb 19. 1859, contains a curious and very interesting essay⁴² read by Thomas Embank (Feb 8. 1859) before the New York Ethnological Society.

This paper is the most suggestive of any thing I have read for a long time — It suggests the causes of and the necessity for diversities of races of men — As savage and untaught Peoples cannot have that sort of powers which comes of Knowledge, art, Science, they can use little else than their own animate forces; whereas, all the great forces of Nature are inanimate.

The author surmises that the Earth could not produce food enough to sustain life in the multitude necessary to do the work by their bodily strength — animate force — that is now actually done by machinery — inanimate force — the power of dead matter put in motion and kept at work, by mind, by knowledge.

He thinks that steam, and electricity and other motors yet to be found out, and their various applications by inventive art, will change the character of labor, and increase its amount incalculably — The slave, he thinks, will become an overseer — that is, instead of doing a little work himself, he will direct steam &c how to do a great deal.

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⁴² Later published as Inorganic Forces Ordained to Supersede Human Slavery, William Everdell & Sons, N. Y., 1860.

⁴³ An entry in red ink in which Bates secures a town lot for his son. Woodson, as a fee for past legal service.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, Annual Report of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930, Vol. 4, The Diary Of Edward Bates, p. 13