The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-05-15
THE GERMAN PRESS.
Civil Rights.

run tuc foiAsuihtt, lnF ttH.J
We have already called attention to the
difference between civil and political rights
The right Of suffrage, and the right to hold
contracts, to buy and to sell, and to appeal to
the Courts, are common or civil rights. The
fatter rights not only the citizens in all the
States enjoy, but persons passing through
them, and the subjects OF foreign powers.
The report. of the Reconstruction Com
mittee, of the first article of which we pro-
pose to speak of to- day, proposes to secure to
every citizen of the land the civil rights
mentioned above. 1t does not, however,
thereby propose to enfranchise the negro
So the Copperhead sheets have conjured up
this frightful specter gratuitouslv.
On the contrary, no intelligent, justice low
ing man can object to giving the freedmen
their simple civil rights. Leading Demo
Gratis themselves, Geo. II. Pendleton for in
stance, found themselves obliged to confess
the reasonableuess of such proposition,
OF what value would freedom be to the
negro if he had not the right to maintain
himself. honorably, either as a farmer or me-
chanic, or by engaging in some business? OF
what benefit would his work or his business
be to him if he did not also have the right to
bring action against those who were unwilling
to pay him for his labor or his wares And
person, when he cannot appear as evidence
in the courts against those who have abused
him, or destroyed his property
Now, in most of the late slave States, laws
exist which deny this protection to the ne
groes laws that forbid his acquiring prop
erty : to sue and to be sued to appear as
witness in a court; to go from one country to
another without pass; to learn to read or
write, and the like. So long as such laws
exist or can be tolerated, the negro is de-
priyed of his rights and is helpless. Under
such laws he can find no protection in an oc
cupation of industry, and must, in conse
quence, turn thief or vagabond.
In order to prevent this the Reconstruc-
ton Committee proposes to assure civil
rights to all inhabitants of the United States,
by an amendment to the constitution.
We must here call attention to one other
circumstance. In many of the Southern
States the penal laws themselves discriminate
between the black and white man. For many
offenses the negro is liable to the sentence of
death, while the white man or Indian comes
off with imprisonment only. This too is
wrong. In Republic, equal punishment
should be meted to the offender, be he rich
or poor, native or foreign born, white or
black Ifjustice must take the bandage from
her ewes to look about and see who or what
the parties are, whether black or white, then
freedom will soon see a sad end. The first
paragraph of the reconstruction report there
fore contemplates obviating such injustice, by
providing that the inhabitants of each State
shall be subject to the same laws.
Who can object to such sensible and rea-
sonable propositions? Only those who would
hold the negro virtually as slave while free
only in name. The consequences OF such
oppression could only be pernicious.
The question is not as has already been
remarked, concerning negro suffrage, but as
TO whether or not poor wretch, who works
on plantation, shall have the right to appeal
to the courts when his employer gives him
blows instead Of wages; whether he shall
have right to buy him piece Of land It he
has the money, whether he must have his
windows broken in and his house burnt down
without being able to call the perpetrators to
account.
Only those in whose bosoms every senti-
meut of justice lies dead, or those who would
perpetrate in this free land condition of the
most abject serv,tude, can set themselves in
opposition to these simple claims. Many do
so merely because they confound civil rights
with the right Of suffrage, or because they
suffer themselves to be deluded by the Cop
perhead sheets, whose financial interests it is
to work into the hands Of their lords and
masters, the rebels.
We hope this article may contribute some
light to those who have not fully understood
this matter TO our Democratic brethren we
call ont "Give every one fair play and
chance to live,' although he be negro.