Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-12-05
THE yEGR0Es AND "K0NE RULE"

THE NEGROES AAD "HO-1H 1'0A
Right upon the democratic victory in
Indiana comes decision of the Supreme
Court of that State excluding colored
children from the public schools. Although
the constitution of the State declares that
no privileges or immunites shall be grant
ed to one citizen or class OF citizens that
shall not equally belong to all ciiizens'
and also that the general assembly shall
provide BY law for a general and uniform
system of common schools wherein tut
ton shall be without charge and equally
open to all, nevertheless the Court decides
that these provisions were not intended to
apply to persons Of the African race, be-
cause they were not citizens at the time
the State constitution was adopted, ana
the above provisions apply only to such
classes as were then citizens. The spirit
OF this decision is like that of the famous
decision in the bred Scott case, viz: that
negroes had no rights which white men
were bound to respect.
The fourteenth amendment to the con-
stitution of the United States. renders.
however, negroes born in Indiana or in
any State "citizens of the United States.
land of the States wherein they reside
and prohibits the State making or eniorc-
ing any law which shall ahridge their
privileges or immunities. In 1869, after
the adoption Of this amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, the leg
islature of Indiana enacted law for the
establishment of separate schools for the
blacks, and excluding them from the
schools of the whites. This practically
amounts to prohibiting the mass Of the ne
groes from the privilege of education,
for they are SO scattered over the State
and SO few in number that it is impossible
for schools to be established that will be
of any benefit to them except in few To-
calities where their number is considera-
BILE. We can imagine how this law works
by considering what would be the oppor-
tunity of negroes in Maine for education,
were this State to establish negro schools
and exclude the blacks from the schools
where white children are taught. Practi-
cally il would deprive them ofthe benefits
of the common school. In some of the
cities and larger towns they might have
schools, but nowhere else because their
number is so small and scattered. The
same result is seen in Indiana. In that
State, according to the last census, there
were 24,560 free colored persons. The
whole number of blacks attending school
was but 3099, and one half of this number
was supplied in less than half dozen
counties, where the negro population was
most dense and therefore admitted of the
support of schools. The remaining half
was spread over nearly ninety counties,
allowing on an average to each county
less than twenty scholars. OF course the
chance for the blacks in those counties to
get a common school education by sepa-
rate schools amounts to nothing, and thus
they are deprived of one of the rights
which the constitution of the United States
guarantees them.
In keeping, however, with democratic
precedent and policy as regards the ne
groes, the Supreme Court OF Indiana holds
the law establishing these separate schools
excluding the blacks from those provided
for the whites, as not in contravention of
the constitution of the United States. The
court sust aims the doctrine of caste, the
right to discriminate against the negro
because of his race or color, and of course
the right to perpetuate class distinctions
between persons of the same race; for if
the rich think their children too good to
associate in schools with the children of
poor men, laborers. mechanics, farmers,
why may they not under democratic doc
trine demand and have schools from which
children Of the poor shall be excluded? Pow
erty is as Objectionable to white nabobs as
color. The slave holding democracy had
as little respect for our northern laborers
whom they stigmatized as"greasy mechan-
les" and "mud sills," as for the blacks over
whom they held the lash of the slave driv
err, and their spirit still prevades the whole
party from Maine to Texas,
We trust that the Supreme Court of the
United States is not constituted Of the
stuff that will permit the fourteenth amend
ment to be violated as in this Indiana case
But suppose that tribunal held to the dem
ocratic idea Of class distinction, how could
the negroes rise above the plane of slav-
cry under the disabilities TO which they
would be subjected by Home Rule ?"
Already Home Rule" in Texas and
Georgia reduces them under certain con-
ditions to absolute slavery, but we hope ii
will not take possession of the Supreme
Court of the United States and trample the
national constitution under its feet. 1t
is by Developments like this in Indiana,
where democratic sentiment prevails, that
we are enabled to forecast the condition
of Our country should tho dpr,oc~ats oh