Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-04-16
"Some latitude of discretion must be left

" ithaI pouy IN the use VI the proper means
to give effect to the granted power; and
the security against the abuse of that dis
erection must be found, with the qualified
voters, under the charter, to whom the
corporate legislators are responsible at the
periodical elections, and majority of whom
can be hardly supposed willing, wantonly,
to Cypress disfranchised race.
''lf the means used to carry into effect
the granted power be an appropriate measure
the degree Of its necessity is question of
legislative discretion, not of judicial cogni-
zance.
81 do not mean to say, because do not
think SO, that there is any abuse in the en-
actment of the law now in question. No
reputable and orderly free colored man, l
presume, would be denied pass from a
justice OF the peace, or respectable white
neighbor, on any necessary occasion which
called him from home after ten o'clock at
night; but what mean is, that when hard
ships do arise, their corrective is with the
people who control the city government.
''Ths law has existed since the 10th of
December, 1872, and its long continuance
is evidence Of its necessity, not only in the
judgment of those who now rule tie city,
but in the judgment also Of all who have
preceded them for the last forty years."
His honor then said these grants by Con-
gress must be construed with some reference
to the state of society in which we live, and
referred to the present as we'll as the past
relative social distinction between the white
and the negro races-distinctions observed
in nearly all the States of the Union, North
and South; aud then proceeded as follows
"Copgess, when they assumed jurisdic-
ton here, in 1901, adopted the laws of
Maryland, in which the two races are
broadly distinguished. The free colored
race is denied the elective franchise; they
are excluded from all places of trust and
honor; they cannot serve on jures, or be
witnesses where a white person is con-
cerned, or serve in the militia, with many
other disabilities In the first charter
given to Washington, in 1902, and in all the
subsequent charters, they are denied the
right of suffrage, and are excluded from all
participation ia the city government.
1.-THE right, in Congress, to confer the
power in question is not denied, and for the
reasons above given. think the city Or
dinance was alawful exercise of that power;
and that the judgment ought TO be affirmed
with costs
''By the second clause referred to, con-
tanned also in the 9Th section of the charter
of 1920, the corporation is authorized ito
prescribe the terms and conditions upon
which free negroes and mulattoes may reside
in the city : and this clause is still relied
on as authority for the ordinance. The
counsel for the appellant refers us to the
case Of Costin VS.. the Corporation of Wash
ington, decided at October term, 1921, I'd
Cranch's Circuit Court Reports, S55, in
which it was held by this court that this
clause of the charter does not apply to those
free negroes and mulattoes who were resi-
ding in the city before, and when the char
ter was granted; that it was to be construed
to operate prospectiuely only, and that the
Legislation of the corporation under it could
only be prospective, and that the appellant,
Carey, came to the city before the year
1927.
1.-The answer is, that the 9th section of
the ordinance of the 31st Of May, 1927, is
no neao provision Of law. 1t had been in
force, in substance, from the 10th of De-
cember, 1912, long before the appellant,
Cary, as appears by the case agreed, came
to reside in Washington, and was only re-
enacted 31st of May, 1927.
''The principle decided by the court in
the case Of Costin vs. the Corporation does |
not apply, and the ordinance, think, can
be also maintained under this I'd clause of
the 9th section of the charter of 1922
NEW PERIODICALs.-Our venerable and |
beloved brother, Joseph Shillington, having