Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-19
0Rlo Statesrna1l.
CONGRESSIO NAL DESPOTlSM.
Protest of the State of LouisianH
10 the Senate of the United

States.
The white people of the State of
Louisiana, through their State Central
Committee, make this protest against
any legislation by Congress to force up
on them, as the fundamental law of
Louisiana, the Constitution framed un-
der the military bills. To the Senate
of the United States they address their
protest. That body has yetrevisionary
control over the Constitution, and upon
it rests the final responsibility for this
Legislation. Though it has but a con-
current authority in the enactment of
laws, greater wisdom is supposed to re-
side in its deliberations. As the equal
assembly of the States, charged to pre-
serve the residuaIy sovereignty of the
States, its dignity, the sense of its re-
sponsibilities and its superior states
manship, enable it to check the legisla-
tive power of a supposed majority of the
people of the United States. When
then the social, educational, and gov
ernmental institutions of the State are
imperilled by inconsiderate legislation,
the Senate, recalling the original pur-
pose OF its creation to protect the weaker
States, may rightly pause and study the
consequences of its Legislation. The.
Judgment of posterity will be the judg
ment of the present generation-that
the true source of the grievances and of
the'white race is the legislation of Con-
gress. The forms of State Conventions,
acting as the agents of Congress, will
not mitigate your responsibility to the
country. When our future deplorable
condition shall have made manifest the
evil consequences of your laws, it will
be too late for remedial legislation. The
claims of civilization, the interests of hu-
manity, and the cause of good govern
ment, suggests that it is wiser economy
to prevent those evils now than to at
tempt to avert them hereafter. The past
action of the people in this State suffi-
clently records their protest against the
mode by which the Convention was made
to exist. We now protest against the
Constitution framed by that Convention,
because its purpose is, and its effect will
be. to subject the white race to the DOM
ination of the negro. That we but an
ticipate the results intended by this Con-
stitution will appear by considering a
few or its provisions.
CART. 13. All persons shall enjoy
equal rights and privileges upon any
conveyance of public character; and
all places of business, or of public resort,
or for which license is required by
either State, parish or municipal author
ity, shall be deemed places of public
character, and shall be opened to the
accommodation and patronage of all
persons, without distinction or discrimi-
nation on account of race or color"
An effort was made in the Convention
to limit this indiscriminate patronage
only to business that would be licensed.
By not requiring a license, the Legisla-
ture could then have allowed to the peo-
pie that modicum of personal right rec
ognized even under every absolute mon
archy. The negro element would per-
NIT no protective barrier against his
conceit for supremacy. By asserting his
power to invade and destroy the COM
monest rights of the white race-he un-
derstands the practical workings of this
provisional the time when his right
to vote had not been permanently secured
to him, when he was stading on the
threshold of his political existence, We
see him struggle for supremacy and carry
his point. Is it not reasonable to predict
that all subsequent Legislation will be
inspired by that aminaus of antagonism,
that frenzied demand for supremacy, to
enable him to gather the fruits of his
fatal triumph Article 81 and SO esta6-
lish Parish Court in each parish, W hich
have probate jurisdiction in which all
SUGGESTIONS shall be opened and finally
settled. This court is also invested with
important criminal Jurisdiction. The
vastand intricate interests of SUGGESTIONS,
involving the gravest questions of law
and the estates of widows and orphans,
are to be settled by the Parish Judges
The rights of personal liberty are placed
within their cognizance. Who are to be
the Parish Judges? The negroes? No
qualification except citizenship is pre-
scribed. The proposed vague qualifica-
tion of Learned in the law" was rejected.
A delegate has published, over his own
signature, that he "heard delegates say
that this was done to enable freedmen
to hold the place of Parish Judges
"TITLE vII-PUBLIC EDUCATION.
CART. 135. The General Assembly
shall establish at least one free public
school in every parish throughout the
State, and shall provide for its support
by taxation or otherwise. All children
of this State, between the ages of six
(6) and twenty-one (21) shall be admit
ted to the public schools or other insti-
tutions of learning sustained or estab-
lished by the State, in common, without
distinction of race, color or previous
condition. There shall be no separate
school or institutions of learning estab-
lished exclusively by the State of Louis
lana"
ART. 136. No municipal corporation
shall make any rules or regulations con-
trary to the spirit and intention of arti-
Gle one hundred and thirty-fve Q35)
CART. 142. A University shall be
established and maintained in the city
of New Orleans. 1t shall be composed
of law, medical, and a collegiate de-
partment, each with appropriate facul-
ties. The General Assembly shall pro-
vide, by law, for its organization and
maintenance. provided that all depart
ments of this institution of learning
shall be opened in common to all stu
dents capable of matriculating. No
rules or regulations shall be made by
the trustees, faculties, or other officers of
said institution of learning, nor shall
any laws be made by the General As
sembly violating the letter or spirit of
the articles under this title.''
The attempt to. establish separate