The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-08-04


the future on the financial question.
CIVIL RIGHTS.
In the seventh resolution the democratic
convention went upon its knees TO the
prejudice against color and the hatred Of negloes
The bill which passed the Senate making pro-
vision for the equal rights of negroes in public
schools, supported by general taxation, colleges,
churches, hotels, railroads. steamboats,, ,theafers,
and graveyards supported at public expense,
was made the occasion for special attack uDon
Senalor Pratt aud myself IL will be remember
ed that the same men whe passed this resolu-
very last did everything in its defense, except TO
fight. They were opposed 10 Its abolition, re-
sisted the civil rights of the negro at every step
and declared that to confer upon him the right
OF suffrage would be the dIshonor and destruc-
ton of the republic. featen al every point,
they would stiil exclude him from the blessings
of education, the equal privileges of travel or
place Of refreshments and rest while on his jour
ney, or Of honorable burial when dead. They
would even exclude him nom the privilege of
Sorshipping God in company with white pea
seldom enter the doors of church.
UNREAsoNABLENEss OF PREJUDICE.
There is something very remarkable in the op-
Grafton of this prejudice against color. Persons
who in their infancy were nursed by negro wo-
men, I'm their childhood slept and played with
negro children, in youth and manhood were the
companions of negroes in the workshop, upon
the farm, in the carriage, and upon the journey,
that way we're almost continually in their sOci
ety. dressed by them. .shavedLy them, nursed by
the their Ie ~ 6Tre e Ia Pimes v and haNing
with them that physical intimacy and contact
/ which does not exist between equals in society:
yet when the same negro, as a freeman. pre-
s1Is 70 stop At the same hote ST 70 F,dd Inshe i
I the same school with theirs, or to Kneel in the
same church, they are inexpresS;iib,y shocked;
ps eht Tay tink Io make votes
/ by appealing TO the prejuGiceS and fears OF the
/ white people about mixed schools. In towns
color are namerous enough TO be formed into
separate schools, there will be no trouble on the
subject, and there has not been. But
neiahborhoods in Tsish tnere " are feM
, 60 Ored children, and whSrn their pf0p1rtipn of
| the school fund would be wholly insufficient to
are not able 10 maintain private schools Tor
them, If they ara not admitted to the public
without ' ed1caiion. And what harm would
those eoiored children do in the pubic school =?
They would interrupt nobody, though in many
places they would be the victims of insult and
oppression The man VINO would say thai under
grow mp without education, 10 be poor, ignorant,
helpless, and perhaps vicious throughout theT
lives, simply because 1t would be offensive ~ 70
white children, himself needs education in the
principles OF our common humanity.
EVEN HANDED JUSTICE.
But the punishment and suffering viii not fall
upon the negro children only: the community
which inRicts the wrong viii ultimately have to
pay for ii in some way. Such are the mysteri
GUS rulings of Providence. Even now the people
of the south are complaining bitterly of The
ignorance OF the colored voters, by whom they
are surrounded, and by whom, in some of The
States and many Of the districts, they are out
mum bersd. The poisoned chalice is-commendeC
to their own lips. only few years ago the
people o. South Carolina, Louisiana and, in
fact, every southern Sta e. made the education
of negroes a felony. For Teaching them x
read aad write, their teachers were fined
often pul 10 death, so that the negroes grew III
in masssn the densest Ignorance, for, it was
subservient slaves And mean white men now
hate TO see the negro educated for fear that he
will become their intellectual superior.
But there came a grand revoluuon. The mas
ters had embarked in wicked rebellion, in
which they were defeated. The slaves were
made free and clothed with equal civil and DO
litical rights with their late masters. In some
of the districts. and in two or three States they
were numerically in the majority, and took the
rens of government naturally into their own
hands. They were not as a mass very well quail
fed to govero, and the moral as well the in
, tellectual education of many of them
was sadly defective, for slavery is a very bad
instructor in morals, teaching honesty neither
by precept nor example. When the white
people come 10 us with loud complaints of mis-
government by the negroes in south Carolina
ana other Soutnern SLAVES, L answer them that
the negroes are just what they made them
Their former masters must take the bitter with
the swest. II is impossible that the brutal sla-
very OF TWO hundred years should not be fol-
lowed by some consequences which disa-
greeab. e to their former masters. And what are
all the sufferlngs and the evils resulting from
fnisgovefnment by the negroes in all the
, southern states combined compared with the
intoleraole sufIerings and hardships resulting
from the Institution of slavery. for even ne
short month? But the negro OF the South is i'm
proving rapidly, -, and IS every where distin,
the old are learning to read and write and all
anxious for the education of their children. In
the State OF South Carolina, in which the negro
population is so largely in the ascendant, anC
over which there is so much democratic groan
, ing, they have to-day better system of schools
than in most Southern States.
"A PERSONAL ARRANGEMENT.
The resolution in the democratic platform
which am considering says: ave view with
abnorrence this attempt on the part of the fed
eral government 10 take control of all tn,
schools, colleges, churches, hotels, railroads
T steamboats,. theaters and graveyards, for tn,
purpose of establi shing negro equality and en-
forcing it under enormous enalty of fines, dam
ages and imorisonmeni. We arraign Senator
Morton and Pratt before the people of Indians
. for their votes in favor of this atrocious msa-
! sure, and we shall ask for judgment agains
them at the hands OF their constituents whom
arraign tae authors OF this resolution for
gross ignorance of the provisions of he civil
: rights bill which passed the Senate, and OF the
fconsJitution of the state of Indiana. The i'll
does not attempt 10 take control Of all the
? schools, colleges, churches, hotels, railroads
part of the soyernment of the United States bn
leave that ,ntrol precisely where 1t is now. Ii
simply makes II a penal offanse to deprive the
negro of his equal enjoynaent o. those institu
tions because of his race and color. The pr wis
Ion OF the civil rights bill in regard 10 schools
is In the words: THAT all persons within the
iurisd ctior OF the United States shall be enti-
tied 70 the full and equal eni oyment of the ac
commodailons, advantages. facilities and privi-
legs OF com non schools and public
Institutions of learning or benevolence support
ed In whole or in part by general taxation"
; IL will be perceived that If colored children
receive the fall and equal enjoyment OF the
common school system. 1t is. a compliance with
this act, ana that the act goes no farther than
secure 10 col0red children the equal benefit o
the schools and the control of these schools is
left to the local authorities: but where they are
deprived OF the equal benefits, Furnishing by ap.
propriate penalties those officers or persons by
by whom they are so deprived.
CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF INDI-