The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1874-06-04
Tho civil Rights Bill.

Tho civil Rights Bill.
This bill comforting or necossitat.tig a party
OF privileges on white and black, seems to have
. hitc., in the House of Representatives. mas
mich as the white and black have the same sLf-
frige power, and practically are in possession
tf every other which really would afford them
Oily benefit, We can see no good That would re-
suit from its passage. Much evil possibly
might accrue to the negro. i'll the way OF
change that probably would be brought about
operation in Virginia, for, mark, it is within
the province of the people of the State to make
or unmale. and modify State laws and State
constitutions. so that the government is. still
kept republican in its character and dispense
tory of eqnal protection and privileges to all
The black man has nothing to complain of,
fom the fair-minded intelligent white man Of
Virginia. The war which set him free, left
him Ill Virginia side by side with the white,
Who formerly owned him, may be, and the last
possessing superior education, information, eS-
periencc, AMI self-control over passion and
impulse. The white man had no hate-regret-
ting, so far as he was pecuniarily interested,
percIlancc, his loss of fortune in the slnaiIif-
mission OF the slave, he readily recognized the
foregone conclusion of his freedom, and cher
ishipgsno disloyalty to high moral obligation
to render all the aid that was possible TO the
promotion OF his interests, sought in all the va
rious ways that came within his reach to
strengthen and prepare him for the new and
responsible duties and obligations that deyolv-
ed OH him, the black man.
We speak here Of the white men who under
stood their own obligations and the true char
acter OF the revolution in the political and do
mestic relation of the negro. The State con-
stitution hal incorporated In it the free public
school system, that recognized the propriety OF
educating the negro, and the suffrage right
there too contained, was passed upon by the
Virginia people long before any amendment to
the Federal constitution made it incumbent
on all the States to endorse it. These laws,
We have no doubt, We're submittsd to rs ne
ssity for their own good in Virginia, but
that the capacity of the white people to SO early
and readily adapt themselves to these laws
and perceive the necessity, demonstrates the
high character of the people and their earnest
desire to deal fairly with. the Federal govern
ment, the negroes, and their own pledges of
faith to the events and sequences of war, and
the peace after the war. The free, public
school system, has been fully inauglrated in
Virginia. At separate desks, ia separate hous
es, with separate teachers, the whites are
taught from the black and the blacks from the
W lites, but all are entitled to the same text
books in the ratio of their advancement, and
the public money impartially distributed to
each, with here and there an exception. The
blacks here have no desire to go to the same
school house, who fully understand their inter
ests, nor do the whites have any intention of
supporting an Institution that sustains this.
The Lacks do not desire to enter the parlor OF
the white man uninyited-.lis reception would
not be such as to make his sojourn pleasant,
black man S parlor. We have 10 doubt OF the
fact, that the passage of the civil rights bill in
its present phase of mixed schools, would be
the occasion and canse of topping down the
free school system OF Virginia. Republicans
should beware how they tritle with the best in
terests and future development OF the negro
The civil right bill, it is said would be vetoed
by the President, il passed, IS was the Peters
burg charter by Gov. Kemper. We do not
and are not authorized to speak for the Presi-
dent, of course, but the reader will remember
that he who aulsed the idea Of the bill in
his brain, till it became an .all-absorbing
thought with him was not the supporter of
Gel. Grants election, but that he was his most
bitter opponent in the last Presidential cleo
ion. Charles Summer, Senator from Massa-
,husetts, was the staunchcst advocate of the
election Of Horace Greeley-the last himself |
the great anti-slayery agtator of the |
North. The bill comes not from the friend of
he E.cecntire but from the Senator who OPP
,osed him and who stood shoulder to shoulder
With the men endorsed in the city Of Baltimore
" the Representatives of the Conservative |
,arty of Virginia. If there is anything in po-
itical association, the sympathies We're with |
sumner and Greeley on the question then, aud |
lot with Grant and Sumner. But it may pass
he House, and the President may deem it his
luty to allow it to become law. Ii SO, the |
thief result down here will be only that esluca-
ion will have full stop-llmost so far as the |
negroes are concerned. That the tavern-kaep- |
NO business Will at all be disturbed Or changed,
We have no idea. Why, in all time, the law
for inil-keepers was the same in reference to
5he white man, and yet in that time, always
here was Il discrimination q to entertainment
# whites. The landlord assigns to one white
nan room to sleep in; to another he ass gns |.
,erhaps worse. 1t is his DUTY to accommo-
late all, 10 refuse none entertainment, but lie
has the perfect right to say where a man, white
Or black, shall sit at his table-what bed he
hail lay in, what room he shall take. The
black man has too much sense to desire to
leep in the same bedroom with the white
man, Or to sit at the table with him, if the
White man does not lie sire it.
To grow in intelligence, to Secure the cdnca-
ion OF their children, to preserve their political
ranchise, and to make tiemsev worthy citi-
ems, should be the ambition of the negro, for
trough these i.lstrlmentalties alone can he
cheve any high social status. His own con-
uct must bring him to the standard where
,cognition Of his rights to all social amenities
nd courteses win be vouchsafed. Republicans
Ill in their mission of beneyolence to the ne
TO when they push him forward rrtlely to