New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-10-22
RIGHTS WHIcH HAVE BECouE WRoNGa

RIGHTS UHICH HAVE BECOAE WRONGS.
The enforcement legislation of Congress has
begun to bear extraordinary fruit The arrest
of peaceable citizen in his own house by
United States officials, for no color of an
oflense, is an outrage in itself; but Mr. Helm
reich was not only dragged out of his house
and hailed before U. S. Commissioner Dayen-
port in the private room of hotel, he was
refused opportunity to give bail, and was sent
to Jail After lying in prison from Saturday
until Monday he was Gallied and triled with
as if he were not freeman, entitled to the
rights of a citizen. Indeed, the arrogant
official who is clothed in little brief author
ity, though finally condescending to admit Mr.
Heinroch to bail, signilied his unreadmess to
proceed any further, because the Government
witnesses were con duty" This is what
comes of giving unlimited power for oppres-
sion into the hands Of weak or bad men.
Conceived in q spirit Of justice, the Enforce
ment acts have become possible tyranny. so
far as the facts appear in the Heinreich case,
the details of which we publish to-day, this is
the sheerest and most capriciOus tyranny.
This special legislation of Congress has
been two-fold in its nature and objects. In
tended originally to afford to the ignorant
colored people the necessary aid and protec-
ton in the first exercise of their newly
acquired rights, to sustain them until they
should become able to stand alone in the full
dignity of citizenship its scope was afterward
extended for the relief of the great cities Of
the country, like New-York, where the Tam
many Ring denied to the people the right to
hold a fair election. The! latest amendment,
20 Mo hal
box in the land in the hands of Grants SUI
pervisors and deputy marshals, was so strongly
opposed, not only by Liberals and Democrats
but also by some Of the best men who still
stood by the Administration, that it was
amended nearly to death, and was in comDar-
atively harmless form as it finally passed.
The first occasion for the Enforcement act
has entirely passed away. Unmolested and
without fear, unless it be from members of
their own race who sometimes undertake to
punish man for supporting tho Liberal or
Conservative cause, the negroes now vote and
hold Office, make political speeches and march
in political professions all over the South.
The Freedmen's Bureau, organized for the
purpose Of aifording to the negro the same
assistance socially which the Enforcement act
gave to them in the exercise of their political
rights, fulfilled its mission, led the negroes up
to the point where they could make their
own contracts and look after their
own political interests, and was then
wisely abolished It's longer continuance
would have been dangerous alike to the rights
of the white people and the advancement of
the blacks. But the Enforcement act not only
still remains upon the statute book, but, in
the hands of the ignorant and unprincipled
officials who are intrusted in the South with
its execution, is gradually undermining the
liberties of the whole people. FREQ speech is
no longer enjoyed in many parts Of the South !;
for hasty word said in n heated political
discussion, for the most trivial act Of which
no law less absurd and oppressive than
the Blue Laws of Connecticut would
take cOgnizance, men may be, nay are
dragged from their homes before the United
States Courts ard subjected to expensive and
ruinous trials. All of this is done under and by
authority of the fifth section of the original
act which is aimed against the intimidation Of
voters; and intimidation, in the estimation Of
q U. S. Commissioner or deputy marshal, may
consist in the utterance of any trivial word
That the people of New-YOrl and other
Northern States have not been heretofore
obliged to suffer in like manner is due only
to tho force of public opinion; for the law
applies equally in this State and North Caro-
lima or Louisiana. With this --latest outrage
before u.s. we cannot say how long even
public opinion will be sufficient check to
the encroachments Of the Administration upon
popular liberty.
That the Enforcement act has failed to ac-
complish its secondary object and to insure
honest elections in tho large cities, has been
abundantly proved by the experience in this
city in 1870 and in Philadelphia at the late