Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-07-10
bort q oborro Times
PORT ACCO:
Friday Morning, July...,..."...... 10, 1874.


Among the measures which Congress
did not pass, but which the Radical party
stands pledged to adopt and the President
to approve, is the infamous, so-called Civil
Rights bill. To the same extent to which
the Radicals are pledged to enact this law
Is the Democratic party committed to fight
against it forever. Therefore for this derc-
LECTION of the dominant majority we are
grateful, though it was obtained by the
lndomitable courage and watchfufness of
the minority. In opposing this measure
We by no means wish to be understood as
being unf,vorable to the protection of the
newly emancipated colored man. On the
contrary it is just because we wish to see
him fully secured in the enjoyment of all
his rights and advanced in the social and
intellectual scale that we oppose such i'm
polite and unconstitutional legislation.
Being repulsive, because unconstitutional,
if ever it should become a law, it could
only be enforced by Federal bayonets-
All which would tend the more to draw
the line of demarcation between the races
and create hostility to the one proposed
to be benefited. In such conflict the
blacks, being numerically and intellectu-
ally the weaker, must be the sufferers
In reviewing the history of the Radio Il
party end also in looking to their pro-
claimed policy for the future, this mea-
sure, to the enactment of which they are
solemnly committed, looms up with mag
nitude not to be disregarded by the patriot
who desires the welfare and advancement
of his country morally and materially.
We have heretofore spoken of the i'm
policy of this measure and shown that the
effect would be to abolish the entire sys-
tenn of public schools the moment the law
required a mixture of the white and black
children in the same school houses. We
propose now to speak of the unconstitu-
tionality of such legislation. This mea-
sure SO fraught with evil, especially to US
in Maryland, illustrates most LUMINOSITY
Vic N1lCS9 aliNN ppSltih0 dhtdSouiSul bc-
tween the Democratic and the Radical
parties-the difference between States
Rights and Capitalization. And it is well
for all to understand that in voting direct
ly with the Radicals, or aiding and abet-
ting so-called Independents, they are at
last voting against the Democratic doc
trine of States Rights and Home Rule and
in favor of setting up, in lieu of the Con-
stitution of our fathers, Capitalization in
its most odious and repulsive form. There
is no escape from this position. Men may
squirm and twist, equivocate and prevari-
cate as much as possible, but the fact that
they are supporting the Radical party will
cling to them like the shirt of Nessus--
Who is not with us is against US.
The Constitution of the United States
provides that "The powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution
nor prohibited by it to the States, are re-
serred to the States respectively or to the
people" To this doctrine the Democratic
pdItS Has ever StOO0 du(t ever Will Slduu
true, as long as there is such a party
This is not the first time it has been called
on to battle for the great doctrine of States
Rights as guaranteed under the above re-
cited tenth article. In the earliest days of
the Republic the Federal party, as it was
called, organized under the leadership of
a To- nd fnr q
strong government and a centralized pow
er; whilst the Democratic party, founded
by Jefferson, denied to the Union every
undelegated power and maintained in all
their integrity the large powers reserved
to the States respectively. Jefferson in
his inaugural reiterated this doctrine in
language not to be misunderstood. He
said: The support of the State govern
ments in all their rights, as the most COM
petent administrations for our domestic
concerns, and the surest bulwarks against
anti-republican tendencies" was the true
spirit which animated our form of govern
ment. From that day to this the Demo
cratic party has ever been consistent to
the principles thus enunciated by its great
apostle. That this has been the received
construction of the Constitution, until the
recent advent of the Radicals, there can be
no doubt. Now, we claim that the sub
ject matter embraced within this proposed
civil rights legislation is one of the reserv-
ed rights and belongs to what is known
as the police powers Of the States-that
power on which depend within the State,
as the Supreme Court has said, "the secu-
rity of social order, the life and health of
the citizen-the comfort of an existence in
thickly populated community, the en-
joyment of private and social life, and the
beneficial enjoyment of property"
Whether negroes shall sit beside white
men at the hotel table, sleep in the same
state room aboard steamboats,, hire boxes
at the opera, or send their children to the
schools and other public institutions in
common with the white people, is a ques
tion which in its very nature belongs to
this police power, and as Chief Justice
Marshall says, ''forms a portion of that
immense mass of legislation which con-
trolls everything within the territory of
State not surrendered to the General Gov
erament. all of which can he most advan