The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-12-03
Tho enforcement Act

..to enforce the right Of citizens Of the
.ITn;ted States to vote in the several States
" Of this Union. and for other purposes"
Unfortunately, no lawyer Of first-rate stand
inc at the bar is among the commissioners
here, and so our people are at the mercy o.
iack-leg pettifcggcrs. With USpERWooD ~
perform Judge BoNp's duties, and 'kNA.H'
to prepare the cases for court, we 'ae
deed liable to be unlawfully arres'ea All"
unlawfully punished, and thai ".."y" ,.,rs
ing committed any offence as''is' 'A'
Of the land. c>u.,,rot.
Mr. Jrvr,ss lords it over the unfortunate
white race In manner that shows no" NJ
t,o octu.;ntance he has with the principles
oftha science of law. Most people ADMIT
tnot ,hs stream cannot rise higher than the
fountain. But not so with JENKINS. nc
rrayelv and isnorantly, and we suppose
therefore we may add honestly, assumes
tb,t under the enforcement act men may
violste a law not authorized by the fifteenth
arocndmept. The fifteenth amendment IS
In these words:
Asr.15. Sec. l. The right Of citizens
orthe United States to vote shall not be de-
MED or abridged by the United States, or
nv any state, on account Of race, color, or
preyious condition Of serritude.
:. Sec. ,. Congress shall have power TO
enforce this article by appropriate ieS's'a-
tion."
Senator THURMAN, of Ohio. made during
the last session OF Congress an argument
amounting to q demonstration to- prove
that Congress had no power under thiS
amendment to pass a law such as the en-
forcement act. The language of the amend
ment shows that the object of it is TO pre-
vent any State from depriving the negro OF
the right of suffrage because he is negro.
1t is absurd, therefore, in legal point OF
view, however outrageous it may be III
practice. to arraign MIR. HAGAS, or Mr.
FOSTER, or Mr.. STRONG, in n court OF JUS
tice, and when they demand to be informed
as to the nature of the charges against them,
to tell them that they have violated sec
ton of the Constitution which prohibits the
States from doing certain things. But laying
aside this view of the case, and admitting
that the law conStitutionally operates upon
individuals, it is nevertheless certain that
the course of investigation followed by
Commissioner JENKINS totally ignores the
object OF the law, and leaves ont OF view
the only purpose which it was intended TO
effect. There can be no violation of the flt-
teenth amendment, and consequently no
violation Of the act to enforce that amend-
ment, except IN cases in which the right OF
q negro to vote is denied or abridged on
account of his race, color, OF previous con-
ditiOn Of servitude. The State of Virginia
has perfect right to alter her Constitution
SO as to provide that no person shall vote
who does not pay taxes, though she cannot
alter it 80 as to provide that no negro shall
vote who does not pay taxes. The enforce
ment law recognizes this right in terms, in
providing that if there be any qualifying
act to be done, the negro'S offer
30 to qualify himself shall entitle
him to vote. Judge CADwALLADER,
OF the United States Circuit Court for Penn
sylvania, has decided that so much Of this
act as provides that an offence shall be as
sumed to have been committed is unconSti-
tutional. This decision was made because
Congress, anxious to punish Democrats, in
serted a clause providing that the fact that
person voted for any officer should be
prinaa fdcie evidence that he voted for Il
Congressman. Now, if ii he uncoDsttu-
tional to assume that person voted for 4
Congressman who could be proved to have
voted for other officers, for much stronger
reason is it unconstitutional to assume that
a person who tried to prevent negro from
voting did so because he was Il ncgro-in
other words, on account Of his race, color,
or previous condition Of servitude. Yet
this Is what JENKINS constantly assumes.
He sits down and hears all sorts of odds and
ends of testimony to prove that Mr.. nAGAN
or some one else, asked such and sucl
questions, but never ELECTS word as to tn,
reason. 1t is no violation of the fifteenth
amendment to exclude man from votin
for any other reason than the one nell
toned in that amendment. TO take an c!
IRENE case, it would certainly be no viola.
ton of the fifteenth amendment to pre-
vent negro or whiteman from votin
because he was Radical. True, th
offence would be q grave one, and on
punishable under the State law, bu
1t would be one which Congress ha
not the power to punish. And if this woult
be no violation ofthe fifteenth amendment it.
self, surely no one will contend that it would
be violation Of any constitutional law
TO enforce that amendment. If, for instance,
the commissioners of election had said to
any negro, eve will let you vote if you
will vote the Conservative ticket, but will
not allow you to vote the Radical ticket y
they would not have violated the fifteenth
amendment, or any constitutional law to
enforce that amendment. Mir. JENKINS,
then, in taking testimony, should hear only
such as bears upon the case. He has by his
conduct brought the law itself into con-
tempt. Judge BOND, being good lawyer,
will brush away all the trash accumulated
In his court in his absence by JENKINS and
UNDERWOOD. The enforcement act is moth.
ing but Radical bugbear, and will be pro.
nounced unconstitutional whenever it shall
come before the Supreme Court CT the
United States.
REvENUB REFoRA.-Some of the papers
keen IN dreadful clatter on this Subject