Semi-weekly Louisianian., 1872-02-08
+" THE NATION ON CIVIL
RIGHTS.


tains the following article with
reference to MIR. Summers supple
mentary bill:
'Mr. Sumner has proposed an
amendment to the bill for the re-
moval of the legal and political dis
abilities imposed by the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution,
which provides, under heavy penal
ties for opposition or obstruction,
for the admission Of persons Of color
to all public conveyances by land or
water, all theatres and other places
of amusement, and to all schools,
churches, cemeteries, and benevo-
lent institutions Incorporated by
national or State authority. Now,
there can be no question as to the
propertyof forcing common carriers
to afford all citizens accommodation
on equal footing, and there is the
same thing to be said with regard
to licensed innkeepers. Men must
travel on their lawful occasions, and
the means of travel are now, and
indeed have been ever since stage
coaches were established, great
monopolies, to which everybody
must resort nOlens r0lens. In travel
ling, too, one must often use inns,
and in large numbers of places there
is only one inn, and in most places
there are only a few; and there is
hardly any place i'll the country
which can support even one good
inn for persons of a particular race,
color, persuasion, or other small
class. To allow common carriers,
therefore. or innkeepers to refuse to
afford a man accommodation on the
ground of his color, is to arm them
with the power of inAicting apenal-
ty which is sure at all times to be
severe, and may sometimes be ter
rible, for it may prove one Of the
most ingenious combinations of in
suit and injury to which a human
being can be exposed. In seeking
to deprive them of such a power,
Mr.. Sumner will have the sympathy
and support of all right-minded
men. 1t is preposterous to allow
steamboatcaptain, navigating Amer
lean waters, under the American
flag, or a railroad company owing
its very existence to the law, or an |
carrying on his business
with peculiar privileges, to degrade
and harass people because their
complexion raises disagreeable as
sociations in certain peoples minds:
We may add, too. that the prejudice
against color is supported by restric-
lions directed against color. Thou
sands of people who could not bear
70 ride in the street-cars with COL
bred people in this city as long as
he companies did not compel them
% do SO, now that they must do so,
'r walk, find no difficulty in it.
Here we stand on firm ground,
where there is no room for the play
# taste"
But the Nation objects to pushing
he provisions so far as to secure
qual rights in schools, theatres and
for all men. It admits
hat the distinction and expulsion
re absurd, but excuses it because
! is "a matter of TASTE" and al
hough it would like to "see colored
eople occupying such places in
very theatre as they are able to
ay for, we desire to see them gain
omission through improvement in
he moral sense of the community
nd not through the assistance of
he United States Marshal" II
Now, in the name of common
ense, what is there so calculated to {
improve the moral sense of the j
Ommuity" better than such legisla- s
ion demanded by the necessities g
the case, warranted by the high
st considerations National policy? S
t is a prejudice which has nothing
social" about it; nor does the fact c
nat white man and a colored man
It in the same kind of accommo-
alton in the same church, school |
r theatre necessarily interfere one
'ta i'll the condition of either. As c