New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-01-15

the colored race oncrous disabilities and bur
dens, and curtailed their rights in the pur
suit OF life, liberty, and property to such al
extent that their freedom was of little value
while they had lost the protection which the,
had received from their former owners from
motives both Of interest and humanity.
They were in some States forbidden {,
appear in the towns in any other characte
than mental servants. They were required
to reside on and cultivate the soil, withou
the right to purchase or own it. They wcr,
excluded from any occupations of gain, ant
were not permitted to give testimony in tn,
courts in any case where white man was
| party. 1t was said that their lives were a
the mercy Of bad men, either because thu
laws for their protection were insufficient o.
were not enforced.
"These circumstances, whatever of false
mood or msconception may have been min
gled with their presentation, forced upon thu
statesmen who had conducted the Fedora
Government in safety through the crisis O
the rebellion, and who supposed that by the
thirteenth article Of amendment they ha(
secured the result of their labors, the con
viction that something more was necessary
IN the way Of constitutional protection to tho
unfortunate race who had suffered so much
They accordingly passed through Congress
the proposition for the fourteenth amend
ment, and they declined to treat as restored
to their full participation in the Government
OF the Union the States which had been in
instruction until they ratified that article
bya formal vote of their legislative bodies.
Before we proceed to examine more criti
cally the provisions of this amendment, on
which the plaintiffs in error rely, let US com.
plete and dismiss the history Of the recent
ilttn If,,on TO hat H.
general purpose which pervades them all
few years. experience satisfied the thought
iul men who had been tho authors of the
other two amendments that, notwiths standing
the restraints of those articles on the States
aud the laws passed under the additional
powers granted to Congress, these wore in.
adequate for the protection of life, liberty,
and property, without which freedom to the
slave was no boon. They were in all those
States denied the right Of suffrage. The laws
were administered by the white man alone.
1t was urged that race Of men distinctively
marked as was the negro, living in the midst
OF another and dominant race, could never
be fully secured in their person and their
property without the right of suffrage.
Hence the fifteenth amendment, which
declares that "the right of citizen Of the
United States to vote shall not be denied OF
| color, or previous condition Of servitude.''
The negro having, by the fourteenth amend
ment, been declared to be a citizen Of the
United States, is thus made a voter in every
State of the Union.
"We repeat, then, in the light Of this reca.
pltulation OF events almost too recent to be
! called history, but which are familiar to us
all, and on the most casual examination o.
the language of these amendments, no one
can fail to be impressed with the one pervad
Ing purpose found in them all, lying at the
foundation of each, aud without which none
of them would have been even suggested
we mean the freedom of the slave race, the
security and firm establishment Of that free.
dom, and the protection Of the newly-made
freeman and citizen from the expressions o.
those who had formerly exercised unlimited
dominion over him. 1t is true that only the
fifteenth amendment in tcims incntiono the
negro by speaking of his color and his slavery
But it is just as true that each of the other
articles was addressed TO the grievances o.
that race, and designed to remedy them, as
the fifteenth"
These arguments, one and all, are thus
declared to have as their all-pervading design
and end the security to the recently enslavet
race, not only their nominal freedom, bu
their complete protection from those who
had formerly exercised unlimited dominion
over them. 1t is in this broad light tina
all these amendments must be read, tho
purpose to secure the perfect equality before
the law of all citizens of the United States
What you give to one class you must give tt
all what you deny to one class you shall
deny to all unless in the exercise of the com
mon and universal police power of the State
| you find it needful to confer exclusive priv
| leges on certain citizens, to be held and eXer
| cised still for the common good of all.
! Such are the doctrines of the Slaughter
| house cases-doctrines worthy Of the Repub
| tic, worthy of the age, worthy of the grea
tribunal which thus loitily and impressivel.
cnunciatcs them. Do they-I put it to an,
man, be he lawyer or not; / put it to thu
gentleman from Georsia-do they give colo
even to the claim that this Congress mayno
now legislate against a plain discrimination
made by State laws OF State customs agains
that very race for whose complete freedom
and protection these great amendments wer,
elaborated aud adopted? Is it pretended,
ask the honorable gentleman from Kentuck,
or the honorable gentleman from Georgia
is it pretended anywhere that the evils O
which we complain, our exclusion from tn
public inn, from the saloon and table of tn
steamboat, from the sleeping-coach on tn
railway, from the right OF sepulture in tn
public battle-ground, are an exercise OF tn
police power of the State? Is such oppres
sion and injustice nothing but the cxercis
bv the State of the right to make regulation
for the health, comfort, and security of al
her citizens? Is it merely enacting that on
man shall so use his own as not to injur
another? Are the colored race to be assimi
lated to an unwholesome trade or to combus
tible materials, to be interdicted, to be shu
up within prescribed limits? Let the gentle
man from Kentucky or the gentleman from
Georgia answer. Let the country know t
4 what extent even the audacious prejudice G
the gentleman from Kentucky will drive him
and how far even the gentleman from George
will permit himself to be led captive by tn
unrichteous teachings Of a false politica
faith.
If we are to be likened in legal view t
"unwholesome trades" to "large and often
sive collections of animals" to ''noxiou
slaughter-houses," to "the offal and stenc
which attend on certain manufactures" lie
it be avowed. If that is still the doctrine 9
tie political party to which the gentlemen
belong, let it be put upon record. If Stat
laws which deny us the common rights an
privileges of other citizens, upon no possibl
or conceivable ground save one of prejudice
or of "taste," as the gentleman from Texa
termed it, and as suppose the gentleman
will prefer to call it, are to be placed unde
the protection of decision which afirms tn
right of State to regulate the police of he
great cities, then the decision is in conflic
with the bill before us. No man will dar
maintain such doctrine. 1t is as shockin
to the legal mind as it is offensive to tn
heart and conscience of all who love justic
or respect manhood. am astonished tina
the gentleman from Kentucky or the gentle