Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1859-09-21
Louisiana Law.

prisonment of all free persons of color ar
irving in the state, is the most oppressive
and heathenish enactment which has been
passed by any civilized State, within the
last half century. Nor are its expressions
confined to that degraded class which, wide
Judge Taney) ''have no rights which white
men are bound to respect" but they affect
the rights of every ship or steamboat own
er, or officer, who employs colorcd men, and
whose vessels run to any port in Louisiana;
indirectly affect every merchant who ships
to or from New Orleans.
The leading features of this statute are
as follows
l. All free colored persons coming into
the State on board of any water-craft are
to be forthwith lodged in Jail, to remain
until the vessel shall leave port.
2. Negroes confined in pursuance of this
law NAV return to their vessels twenty-four
hours before her time of sailing. if wanted
by the master, on his affidavit and bond to
that effect, and further bond Of $500 that
they shall not be allowed to go on shore;
the penalty to go; onc-half to the Charity
Hospital Of New Orleans, and one-half to
the informer, aoho shall not, By reeson Of
his interest. be deemed incompetent as a
a~citness against the offender.
3. The masters of vessels to pay forty
cents per day. for each free person of color,
during the term of confinement.
4. All negroes not removed from jail by
the masters of vessels they came in, to be
notified to leave the State within five days;
and on failure to do this, to be sentenced
to hard labor from three to FIVE months;
and on returning to. or remaining in, the
State after this, to be sentenced to hard Ia
lor for five years, in the State Peniten-
tiary.
8. All masters of vessels to report IN
der oath, all free persons of color in their
employ, that they may be arrested. under
penalty of a fine of $250-onc half to tie
ia;ormer, and one half to the Charity Hos
pital.
6. All free persons of color, coming into
the State, by land or by water, and all free
negroes in the State, but not natives there
of, to be subject TO all the foregoing pen
alties.
4. All persons or police officers. arrest
ing negroes remaining in the State in vio-
lation of the provisions of this act, to re-
ceive a reward of ten dollars for each per-
son so arrested.
If no provision of the constitution of the
United States had been violated by the
law, its infntesimal meanness is 4 burning
disgrace to the State, a part of whose laws
il is.
There is scarcely a steamboat which
runs on the Mississippi, or its tributaries,
and which goes out of the Slave states at
all, which does not employ colored men, as
walters, fremen and deck hands. Accor-
ding to this law, as soon as a steamboat
touches the levec at New Orleans, every
free colorcd mar must be taken to jail, and
there confined until the steamboat is ready
to depart. Then the great chivalr;c State
of Louisiana, must be paid for his board.
First the poor fellows are robbed Of their
wages, prevented from earning more, and
compelled to pay about three dollars per
week, beside jail fees, for the privilege of
being imprisoned. But the law does far
more than this. 1t violates the Constitu-
ton of the United States. That instru-
ment provides that 1.-The right of the peo-
pie to be secure in their persons and prop
erty against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated" Again it
provides that 1.-The citizens of erery State
shall be entitled to all the privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several
States" In six States of this Union, ne
groes are allowed to vote and are citizens
in creyy sense of the cord; In all the Free
States they have the same rights of person
and property, as the whites, and are in all
respects, save that of being allowed to vote,
citizens of the State. This law utterly
takes away every privilege of citizenship,
and violates not only the fundamental law
of the Union, but all right. The trainers
of this. like those of the fugitive slave
law, were not content to leave the execu-
iion Of its provisions, to the officers of
law, and the sense of the people at large,
but offer brides to the informer and the
police officer who will arrest the free col
ored man who dares to remain on the soil
of Louisiana for the space of five days.
Then in order to remunerate herself for
the expenses incurred, the great, noble,
generous State of Louisiana, confines him
to hard labor, for the space of three or Eve
months, or five years, as. the case may be.