The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1867-12-12

Last week the Supreme Court Of Penn
sylvania rendered decision in a case in
volving the question Of the right Of a
negro to force himself into railroad cars
appropriated to and occupied by white
people The case was that of negro wo-
man who took seat in one of the ears Of
the Philadelphia and Nestchester Rail-
way, set apart for white people Upon
being requested by the conductor to take
a seat in the cars allotted to negroes she
refased, and was then removed bv the
conductor She brought suit for DANA
ges and obtained verdict In the lower
court. The railway company appealed t.
the Supreme Court, before which the case
was fully argued at its session il Phila-
delphia. The court announced its eeci-
sion last week, reversing the Judgement OF
the court below, The opinion of the
court was delivered by Judge Agncw,
concurred in by Chief Justice Woodward,
Judges Thompson and Strong; Judge
Reed dissented. As the matter is ot
some practical interest here a5 well as in
Pennsylvania we give the conclusion OF
| the court:
1t is clear, therefore, that, under the
constitution and laws, the white and black
races stand in separate relation to each
other. We fad the same difference in
the institutions and customs of the state
Never has there been an intermix ture of
the two races, socially, religiously, ciyilly,
or politically. BY uninterrupted usage
the blacks live apart, visit and entertain
among themselves, occupy separate places
of public worship and amusement, and fill
no civil or political stations, not even sit
ting to decide their own causes In fact
there is not an institution Of the state in
which they have mingled indiscriminatcly
with the whites Even the common
school law provides for separate schools
when their numbers are adequate. In the
military service also, they were not inter
mixed with white soldiers, but were sepa-
rated into companies and regiments Of
color, and this not by way of disparagc-
ment, but from motives of wisdom and
prudence, to avoid the antagonisms of
variant and unmixable races. Law and
custom having sanctioned separation of
races, it is not the province of the judi
ciary to legislate it away. We cannot say
there was any difference in fact, when the
law and the voice Of the people had said
there was. The law of the states are found in
its constitution, statutes, institutions are
general customs. 1t is to those sources
that judges must resort to discover them.
If they abandon these guides they
pronounce their own opinions, not the
laws of those whose officers they are
Following these guides, we are compelled
to declare that at the time of the alleged
injury there was that natural, legal and
customary difference between the white
and black races in this state which made
their separation as passengers in public
conveyance the subject of sound regula-
tion to secure order, promote comfort,
preserve the peace, and maintain the
rights both of carriers and passengers
The defendants were therefore entitled to
an Affirmative answer to the point recited
at the beginning of this opinion.
1t should be added that in March last
the legislature of Pennsylvania passed an
act, declaring it an oifense for railway
companies to make any distinction between
IT.
The facts, however, in the case decided
by the court, arose before the passage of
this act, and the decision pronounces the
law as it stood when the case arose. We
presume there are no persons, outside of
the negro suffrage and negro equality
party, who have any desire to change that
'separate relation in whicl the white
and black races stand to each other. Ar
bitrary laws, like the prohibiiory legsla-
ton of Massachusetts,, may seek to oblit-
crate the lines which define that separate
relation. But no enactments can eflace
the fact that there is natu al and ire
concilable difference and repugnance be.
tween the races, and that no motives of
wisdom and prudence" but rather of
wilful and arrogant partizanship only,
prescribed laws which enforce an equality
against which nature herself has written
! her own protest. SO far as railway cars