Orestes Brownson on Civilization and Barbarism

There is no civilized nation now existing that developed from a common ancestor this side of Adam, and the most mixed are the most civilized. The nearer a nation approaches to a primitive people of pure unmixed blood, the farther removed it is from civilization. All civilizations are political nations, and are founded in the fact, not on rights antecedent to the fact.

[from page 132 of The American Republic]