The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1866-04-19

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(Sec Turrett rs. Taylor, o Craucb |
43 People rs. Mor,e, i3 wcnd 1
32S; Taylor cs. Porter, 4 Hin l47;l
Fletcher as. Peck. O Cranch sly
"No person" "shall
bc deprived of life, liberty, or prop
d rty without due process oflaw. nor
snail private property TO taken for
public use without just compensa
ton"
1t has never been deemed nee. |
cssary to enact in any constitution
or law that citizens should have
the right to lilo or liberty or the
right to acquire property. These
rights are recognized by the Con |
stitution us existing anterior to and |
IN lcpcndcntly of all laws and all
constitutions.
Without further authority | may
assume, then, that there are certain
absolute rights which pertain toI
every citizen, which are inherent,
aud OF which State cannot consti.
tutionally deprive him. But not
only are these rights adheront and
lindcstructibie, but themcans where.
Iby they may DO possessed and en-.
ljoycd are equally so.
We learn from Coke that
"When the law grinteth any
thing to any one that also is grant.
cd without which the thing itself
cannot BE-. y OdH before tie Jus-
lIce, II Co, 1870; Xerald VS..
Pierce, S Cush. 33S-345
In law the incident always nd.
heres to and accompanies the prin.
lciple, (Broom's legal Maxims, l0S;
I20 Ohio r., 400)
1t is idle to say that citizen
shall have the right to life, yet to
deny him the rightto labor, where.
10y alone he can live. 1t is II
mockery to say that a citizen may
have right to live, and yet deny
him to make n contract to secure
the privilege and the rewards of
labor. 1t is worse than mockery
to say that men ma, be clothed by
the national authority with the
character of citizens, yet may be
stripped BY State authority of the
means by which citiz, ms may exist
Even Shylock, when the decree
of confiscation was pronounced
against him, reasoned better; for
he said:
I"Nny. take my life and all, parlon no, that
You take my house, when you 10 take the prep
n At doth sustain my house, you take my life,
When you do take the means whereby live"
Every citizen, therefore, has the
absolute right to live, the right to
personal security, personal liberty,
and the right to acquire and onjoy
property. These are rights OF
citizenship. AS necessary Incl
dents of these absolute rights there
are others, as the right to make
ard enforce contracts, to purchase,
hold, and enjoy property, and to
share the benefit of laws for the go
curity OF person and property.
Now there are two ways in
which a State may undertake tC
deprive citizens OF their absolute
Inherent inaliena6le rights: cithcr
by prohibitory laws, or oy failure
= to protect one Of them.
. 1t the people of State shonld
, become hostile to a large cl; ss OF
lDaturaIized citizens andshould en-
act laws to prohibit them and nc
other citizens from making con
tracts, from suing, from giving ov
idence, from inhering, buying, hoi
: ding, or selling property, or iron
coming into the State, that woulc
be prohibitory legislation. If til,
State should simply enact laws fol
native born citizens and provide
no law under which natnral;zed
citizens could enjoy any one oi
these rights, and should deny them
all protection by civil process OF
penal cnactncnts, that would be a
denial of justice.
! Yet twelve years have not pass
cd since these and other hostile
measures against naturalized citi-
zens were gravely discussed in
several States, and beyond this, il
was urged that their political rights
should be denied or so abridged
as to bo useless. History is full o
instances were all this has been
lone or a'temped. Com. as. York
0 Metcalf Rep. 1l6; ? Bennett &
Herald's Lead. Grim. Cases.)
This bill, in that broad and com.
prehensive philanthropy which re-
yards all men in their civil rights
as equal before the law, is not made
for any class or creed, or race OF
color, but in the great future that
awaits MS will, if it become a law,
protect every citizen, including the
millions OF people Of foreign birth
who will flock to our shores to be
come citizens and to find here q
land OF liberty and law.
But there is a present necessity
for this bill which find forcibly
stated thus: n
"The fact that no single south
ern Legislature has yet recognized
the right OF blacks to the civil
rights accorded to every alien, sut.
fees to prove the need of such leg.
islation by Congress. We believe
no single southern State has yet
enabled blacks to sue and be sued,
to give testimony and rebut testi.
mony on equal terms with whites.
All that they do, under the pressure
L n