New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-05-28
The Civil Rights Bill.

The Civil Rights Bill.
A measure to secure to the hitherto OPP
pressed and outraged race Of this country
the means of protecting their manhood from
unjust and insulting Determinations has at
last passed the Senate of the United States.
Like every other step taken in the line of
human progress, this one was only accom-
p:lshed after manly and vigorous struggle
between the friends and the enemies of free
dom in that body. The Democracy that
nominated Horace Greeley, which vaunted
ITS frlendliness to the negro in the late Pres
dental campaign, was found, as in days
gone by, in solid column against the measure.
Inc same old arguments, the same old APP
peals to vulgar prejudice, the same old ex-
pioded theories Of State-rights were Haunted
in the faces of our friends with all the vehe-
mence and bitterness as previous to the war.
fer all the purposes of outrage and wrong,
contact with the negro was regarded by the
opponents Of this measure of Justice and
equality as perfectly proper. Iii only when
'hey are asked to deal justly. and fairly with
the negro that they revolt at the contact,
and see nothing but ruin to the country. In
view Of the intimate relations subsisting be-
tween the white people and the black people
OF the South in the days of slavery, it is no
strange that the more enlightened whitet
people OF that section, such men as Senator
Alcorn, not only acquiesce in the measure,
but are among its strongest advocates. They
see II In the eradication of the last vestige of
that system, which brought desolation and
rum upon their section. The case of the
South was admirably put in the speech of
Senator Alcorn. He showed plainly enough
that the South, in opposing civil rights, was
neither true to herself nor to the negro. As
to prejudice of color, he secuted the idea.
One Of the points made against the measure
by Senators Salisbury and Cooper was that
our demand for civil rights in common with
other citizens implied want of selfrespect
and contempt for our own race. To our AT.
rican ears this was amusing for its absurdity.
Who ever heard of its being want of self
respect to ride in good car, or to have
comfortable room in hotel in a word, to
be man among men? And yet this idea
was got off in the Senate by gray-haired
Senators. Our friends in the Senate endured
the miserable sophistry of the opponents of
the bill from one o'clock in the afternoon of
Friday till seven o'clock in the morning of
Saturday, and at that hour passed the meas
ure of justice.
To Senators Frelnghuysen, Boutwell,.
Conkling, Alcorn, Morton, Hamlin, Ed
munds, and Howe, for their able and friendly
speeches, as we'll as their consummate tact
in the management Of the bill, our people
will be ever grateful. The insinuation that
went out from this city that these gentlemen
would fail us, it will be seen had no founda-
ton in fact, and we at no time allowed our
selves to be Influenced by it, and were, con-
sequently. for the moment, the victims of
much vituperation at the mouth of one whose
impertinence and conceit only tended to dis
gust the best friends of our race.
The passage of this bill demonstrates that
the keeper of the restaurant under the House
OF Representatives, and pretended floor
manager of that body, with all his boosted
intimacy and influence with Senators and
members Of Congress, was wholly misin.
formed as to the purpose of the Republican
members Of the Senate in respect to this
measure. He had repeatedly caused it to be
circulated That we had been betrayed lu tile
House of our friends, and that the Civil
Rights Bill had been sacrificed by the Repub-
lican party ; and he, no doubt, with his usual
arrogance, will be whispering in the ears of
verdant visitors to the Capitol that, but for
his timely interference, the black mans
cause would have been jeopardized. We
cannot for moment allow any intimaton
to go out unchallenged that the gentlemen
having in charge the Civil Rights Bill were
disposed, by resort to strategy, to give us a
bill that would be of no practical benefit to
us. Such an intimatiOn, come from what
source it may, is grossly wrong. The vanity
of the pretended loor-manager of the House
Of Representatives is leading its possessor
into conduct that not only Injuries him elf,
but affects disadvantageously the cause of
his people.
We look to the House of Representatives
to promptly complete the work so we'll begun
by the Senate. The necessity for the meas
ure, its expediency, its effect, and its ccnsti-
tutionality, have been fully discussed in the
House in debate in which the members of
that body identified with our race took a
prominent and able part. No more fitting
monument can be erected to the memory of
the lamented Sumner than the passage of the
Civil Rights Bill, which he inspired, and its
holding place in the volumes of our United
States Statutes at Large.
The summer Monument.