Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-11-03
7laion aud gmeritaa.
TEiE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH CARO-
LIMA COUNTS.

Hon. GEORGE S. BRYAN, United States
District Judge for South Carolina, in lis
barge to the grand jury, few days ago,
thus referred to the rights Of freedmen:
But there is another relation which. by
the recent legislation Of the country. YOU are
called TO sustain. Under this new relation
]; may be your duty to pass upon the repu-
tation, liberty and property Of the eolored
race. By the recent act Of Congress, and
the still more recent legislation Of our own
State Legislature, they have become entitled
70 al the civil rights Of our own race. And
by the civil rights bill the courts Of the
United States have been made their peculiar
guardians. Since the considerable action Of
our own State Legislature, We may well take
IL for granted that the cOlored race will come
or be brought into the courts Of the United
States, either for the yindication Of their
rights, or trial for crime, or misdemeanors.
only in such cases, as white men under like
circumstances, would come or be brought
into these courts. Made equal before the
law, in every legal right and remedy. the
court feels assured that the proper courts
and juries Of South Carolina will execute
faithfully and impartially the laws she has
enacted, and secure 10 those recently raised
10 freedom, every right Of liberty, property
or reputation, and visit upon them no other
penalties for crime than those which are in
ficted upon white men. In this court, as in
the courts OF the State, il is certain equal
justice will be administered to the colored
race.
The promises Of the law shall be here re-
dlaies. The law is now the friend Of the
cOlored man. Ii smiles on him and the
white man alike. il am sure, gentlemen Of
the grand jury, that you will not be less his
friend thaa the law, and when he appears
before you as prosecutor, or witness, or Grim
inal, you will deal with him faithfully, and
justly, and kindly, and make good all the
engagements Of the statute book You will
make him realize that you are his friend.
Justice, humanity, magnanimity, gratitude
even so low thing as pOiicy-commend
this course Of conduct He has been our
faithful slave. He accepted liberty when it
was brought 10 his door; and though fol-
lowing the instincts Of nature, he has pre-
ierred liberty TO his master, yet how seldom
has he been a cOnspirator; and in all this
dreadful disorganization and disruption Of
the bonds Of civil order and the overthrow
of all rule and authority, how few cases in
which he has applied the torch of the incen-
diary, and how marvelously few the in
stances in which he has BETRAYED his former
master and driven home the knife Of the as
sassin
And gentlemen, can doubt that you and
our people will agree with the court in the
sentiment that magnanimity, as well as
justice. humanity and gratitude enforce this
line Of action. We have still many adj
vantages. The colored people have ceased
10 be our slaves, but they must long con-
tinue, in large measure, 10 be our depend
ents. Though stripped of property, and
almost n people Of bankrupts, yet our race
have still the advantage in property. We
also have the advantage of education. We
too, were born free, and are the descendants
Of ireemen, and the inheritors of their fame
their laws, their literature and proud his
tory. We belong 10 the master race of man
kind-that race which, ruling all the waters
Of the world, its seas and oceans, without
dispute, dominates equally upon the land,
and plants its yoke at will upon the neck Of
all the other tribes and kindreds and races
Of men. We make, we administer the law.
We judge; We have all the responsibility Of
superior power-of poirer. How appeal
ingly, then, does every sentiment of magma
nimity persuade us to exercise that power
Iu9sigS toApedLlugiyJ lheIcliully, klnuly ana
eharitably, whether on the Bench or in the
jury box, or in the common affairs Of life.
trust in you implicitly, gentlemen of-the
jury, TO manifest this sentiment in any duty
which, as jurymen, you may have TO dis
charge 10 our colored people, and | take
heart and hope and rejoice in the assurance
that our recent slaves will be made TO feel
10y our treatment Of them that our people
are not less their friends now, that, in the
providence Of God, they have been made
free, than when they were our faithful
bondsmen.