The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-02-07

1ne tulnS called Dy the "trOoly l0ll men,
bers of the Legislature the civil Rights
Bill" is now under discussion in the Senate.
We presume it viii be passed under the pres
sure of the fallacious idea of personal rights
entertained by the representatives of the
newly enfranchised class, and of the political
necessities of the adventures and charlatans
who are their allies. The supporters of this
infamous and tyrannical measure seem to
think that they have settled the question in
their own favor when they establish some
fancied analogy between their assumption of
the rights to regulate the private business of
every citizen, and those rights growing out of
the English law of common carriers and places
OF public resort 1t is entirely irrelevant
to discuss the question from any such point
OF view, unless it be first established that the
English law is the law of natural right and
justice, and to attempt this would be equiva-
lent to arguing the point on its abstract mer-
Its. The manner in which Blackstone and
Kent may expound and interpret the common
law of England-a law growing out of the
customs of the society in which it origina-
ted-has no bearing on the question whether
or not the right of persons to the control of
their own property should be subservient to
the views and wishes of majority or a mi
nority, as the case may be, expressed through
the forms of legislative enactment The
article of the Constitution which the pending
bill seeks to enforce, declares that every
person shall have liberty to enter every public
place, and all places are declared to be public |
that pay license. Hence the Legislature, or |
a municipal body, may convert every place of |
private business into public place, by SIM |
ply imposing license on it. Indeed, as the |
general form of taxation in this State is that |
OF licenses, and as every business, trade and |
occupation is compelled to pay license, there
is no such thing as private business
no such thing, any longer, as the right of a
man to conduct his affairs in his own way.
This is simply an assumption on the part of
the Legislature to use the taxing power in
such manner as to destroy the very rights
which the 'law-making power is bound to pro.
tect-the right for the protection of which
taxes are levied Logically, all taxation is
tyranny which EFFORTS from the citizen mora
than his fair proportion of the amount neces-
sary to conduct government which limits
itself to the discharge of its true functions
the protection of life and property. In this
the protection of all rights is embraced; and
to assume that there are public rights-that
is to say, rights appertaining to the mass
which conflict with these rights, is to assert
That government represents the uprestrained
will of majority, and that there is no such
thing as personal rights-in other words
that there are no rights of person and prop
erty at ALL But it is entirely useless to argue ]
points like this with the unrestricted class {
who imagine that trooly loil patriot has {
m some mysterious way become invested I
With an imprescriptible right to govern the g
State; and that "rebels" in other words per-
IONS whose political views are Questionable
% the dominant party, are possessed only OF
ueh rights as the "trooly loil squad of adj.
'enturers may choose to grant to them. Rea- L
on is Of no avail with such people; but ex. Of
'erience will, probably, teach them that all r
heir so-called statutes which defy the opinion n
4 the people of the State, and attempt to SUD-
ress the right of citizens to conduct their =,
BUSINESS according to their own notions of i
ropriety and expediency, viii be as void as if
Iritten in water.