The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-10-08

O6lOf0 the law arising from race, colo
or previous condition of servitude 1t
| equally undeniable that the State law rt
quiring education in separate school
recognizes and establishes distinctio
based upon those very grounds, and tina
it is therefore denial of the equalit
contemplated by the Constitution. Ser
ator Brownlow admits this by implies
ton. He says, 1T is true the law make
no distinction on account of color in Ma:
sachusetts or Pennsylvania, but there
not color enough there to base distin(
| ton upon The implication is that il
| States where there is color enough tn
| law does make distinction which j
distinctly forbidden by the Constitution
But the editor of HarperS Weekly" con
tinues the Senator, says that such re
strictions as attach to our school law ar
the result of prejudice. If this be true
it has the merit of bearing equally in it
restrictions upon all classes and boil
races" But If, as the Senator has tolC
US, the schools are exactly the same il
point of the education afforded, why ar,
not all the children taught together? /:
1t not for the r. ason that he and Govern
or Brown and Mr. Smith and others have
already mentioned, that the whites viii
shut up all the schools, and take all the
their children taught with the colored
children
This is is what the Senator vehemently
asserts. Can he then deny the truth o.
our remark that the distinction is due to
prejudice? And does he think that
equality Of citizenship is maintained
when a stigma arising from prejudice is
cast upon a certain class by law? No. he
does not think so, as he shows by saying
after all his insistence upon the equality
OF the law, 1T is the part Of wise states
manship to respect the prejudices of the
people to a certain extent, and ii IS entirely
e0ident hot this prejudice must be respected IN
Tennessee, or tie free schools destroyed
Here he comedies all that we have said
upon prejudice as the ground of the law
and the only question between US is to
what extent and in what way statesman
ship should respect prejudice.
One evident rule is that every consti
tutlonal right must be protected, because
to yield any of them to prejudice is mere
ly to embolden the prejudice to demand
more. Another rule is that the sources
and character of the prejudice must be
carefully considered, that the logical con
sequences of yielding to it may be per
ceived
ton against the Republican party in the
Northern States has produced such out
RACES against the colored population a.
we have recently seen in the Southern
States, what ought to be expected if the
Republican party itself should openly re
spect the prejudices from which the out
RACES spring? If equal rights in the
schools may. be denied. so. as we have
said, they may be denied every where
and the special reason that they are de-
manded In the schools is the conviction
that If not granted there they will be
denied elsewhere. Nor is this apprehen-
sion uniounded. The inequality is en-
forced in all public institutions and con
veniences. The colored citizen cannot
occupy saloon cabin upon the steamer,
nor an educated and well7bred mulatto
woman SIT in the ladies car upon the
railroad, and at hotels there is often II
separate table. And Senator Brownlow's
equality" in the separation is not main
tanned; for the quality Of the accommo
datlon is always inferior. Why should
1T be different in the separate schools
The equality is not demanded because OF
any spirit OF social aggression upon the
part Of the colored citizens. viii h, indeed
they have not shown. The Alabama Re
publican Convention says-and truly, as
experience proves-"We neither desire
nor seek the invasion of the rights Of the
white people by the colored; we only ask
equal advantages in matters of public and
right" and again, "rhe Repub
Ilcan party does not desire or seek mixed
schools or mixed accommodations for the
colored people. but they ask that all
these advantages SHALL be equal p"
The questions which the Southern sit
uation present to a statesman are wheth-
err he will recognize a pariah class among
American citizens, and whether such a
recognition would not necessarily in
crease the difficulties of the position.
Mr.. Brownlow says that a proposition
was gravely made by the representative
Republicans of the white race in Con
gress last winter to their colored col
leagues that they should agree to sepa-
rate school system. 1t was proposition
to recognize the prejudice that made
their race pariahs, and "it did not receive
respectful consideration" says Senator
Brownlow bitterly. He adds, at was
scornfully rejected by the boot-blacks,
barbars, pastry-cooks. bar-tenders, and
thieves in Congress from the Cotton
States" These words show athe con-
prejudice which statesman
shio is asked to respect" When this is
the spirit of Republican Senator from
Tennessee, the result of the late election
in that State is ineligible enough But
when he asks us to make it the spirit OF
the party, as the proof of a true states
manship we are painfully reminded OF
the days when we were told that true
statesmanship required us to concede
that the precedent of Onesimus settled
Christianity and wisdom of the Fugitive
Slave Law. Mr.. Brownlow, in common
with the dominant Southern sentiment,
would recognize an inferior class OF citi-
zens under the Constitution-politi
lepers pariahs. We certainly do not de-
ny the deplorable difficulties of the
Southern situation, nor are we dealing
with the character and capacity OF the
colored race. We do not need to be
taught the evils of an ignorant suffrage,
nor to learn the destination of the scoun-
drels who corrupt and mislead it. Nor
are we insisting upon what is called
mixed associations per Sc. But in the
of the Southern States,
and IN the presence of that prejudice for
which Senator Brownlow pleads, and of
the force of which he is so conspicuous
an example, we are very sure that the
constitutionally guaranteed to
the colored citizens can not be main
tanned if the sentiment which has freed
them consents that they shall be made
pariahs. If the reasons tor which we are
ask ed to assent to distinction of races
before the law are valid, they should
cause us to acknowledge the fundamental
error of reconstruction, and to acquiese
IN the restoration of a party which would
need but hint from public opinion to
reverse the whole Republican policy,
Ludierous Scene in Pulpit.
A South German paper relates the fol-