Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-19

Inc court OF any county OF cOfpOrdIlOnt
upon satisfactory proof by white person, Of
the fact, may grant to any free person OF
mixed blood, resident therein, a certificate
that he is not a negro; which certificate shall
protect such person against the penalties and
disabilities to which free negroes are subject
as SUCH"
The Alexandria Gazette states that two men
recently applied to the county court for the
benefit of this law, and having proven that
they were octoroons, the court certified that
they were not negroes, and, therefore, were
not subject to the obligations and penalties
which the law attaches to free negroes in that
Commonwealth
II is only in the slave States that the courts
would dare to do this. In the free States, all
parties seem to think il necessary to relieve
themselves from the taint of Abolitionsm,
and from the consequent suspicion of de-
sire to give the negro equal rights by extend
ing the legal disabilities of black men, even
TO persons having a great preponderance of
the blood of our own race, for the sake of
visitingit on the fractional portion-some-
times infinitesimal-of African blood. That
we should be willing to degrade fifteen parts
of our own proud and mythical Anglo-Saxon
blood, merely to crafty prejudice against
the other sixteenth part of African blood,
prejudice which is founded. entirely on the
great superiority of the fifteen-sixteenths Of
his blood, is one of the incomprehensible
mysteries of the human mind.
If our blood is so very superior. why should
ninety-nine parts of it be overcome by one
part of African blood2 Certainly SO little
leaven never leavened so large lump. We
know this is an instructive prejudice, one of
our strongest and holiest sentiments which
shows our superior nature, and all that sort
of thing The mulatto children in the streets
arc living witnesses of that When white
men introduce this blood from the blackest
Africans into the veins of their own children,
we need no further evidence that this preju-
dice is utterly jrradicable, and one of our
highest instincts. But this prejudice is
founded on the superiority of our blood, and
how does it come that our regard for the su-
periority is marked by the degradation Of ff-
teen parts of this superior blood, because it has
come in contact with one part of the inferior
blood2 These are mysteries which 1--WE do
not pretend to fathom. But it seems that a
different rule prevails in the slave State OF
Virginia; yet they have always claimed to
understand the peculiar instincts of high
blood. There, man more white than black,
is legally not negro. Here man may be
twenty-nine parts white, but if the thirtieth
part is known to be African, we insist that
he shall be legally negro. This momentous
doctrine forms plank in one of the party
LTD, - kb;s Ctata HToofopos oniuoie nj
Lestibus iror'-such are the eternal princi-
pies of political parties.
We also exclude them from our public
schools According to a recent learned de-
cision of Judge Peck, of the Ohio Supreme
Court all children with any mixture of Afri-
can blood are, for educational purposes, AT
ricans therefore they are, by law, excluded
from the schools where white children go.
If there are twenty of these black and colored
children to attend school in any district,
the law makes provision for them. Other
wise it leaves them to ignorance and its con-
comitants. The provision will reach thirty
or forty districts in the State out of about
1900. Thus our glorious system of common
schools, which is founded entirely ON the
principle that the public safety requires that
children should be educated at the public ex-
pense, to prevent them from becoming bur-
dens on the public, has already got so far
above its fundamental principle that the very
persons most liable to become public burdens
are excluded from the schools.
In a town, within our observation, where
the public school system has been perfected,
as it is called, so that it was announced that
the means of complete education were
within the reach of all, girl, nearly white,
was excluded from the higher grades of the
schools on account of her complexion. She
went to 0berlin and completed her studies in
schools not founded on State necessity.
There may have been some palliation in this
case. from the fact that white complexion
was the only superiority that could be asserted
for the daughters Of the superior race, and
the contrast in attainments might have been
made mortifying by that in color. But thi:
is the way that perfect system of public
education works. But would we have the
children of our first citizens mixed up witt
all sorts of complications in the public schools
By no means. We have the utmost respect
for our first citizens, and for our color Tha
is the reason why we take an interest in tht
seven-eighths of white blood in a man o
visible admixture. But this we do say, il
regard to our public schools the only prin
ciple on which the right to take money
by compulsion from one man, to edu
cate another mans children, is that it il
necessary to the safety of society and of th'
State, that children should be educated, Il
keep them from becoming dangerous to so
ciety and burden to the State, as criminals
and paupers. This necessity begins with the
destitute, the poor and the abject. They art
exposed to Ignorance, temptation and crime
Consequently they have the first claim upon
the public means of education. The children
of our first citizens do not constitute any
part of this public necessity. Their parents
are able to provide for them therefore, they
must wait till the most destitute are served
If there is any honesty in the principle on
which our public schools are founded, if the
system has right to exist, the children o.
colored people have the first right in the
schools. Any system which does not first
providefor them has no foundation to stand on
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