Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-30
SENATOR COOPER's SPEECH ON
CIVIL RIGHTS.

ter.
SENATOR COOPER's SPEECH ON
CIVIL RIGHTS.
Senator Henry F. Cooper of this
State delivered his maiden speech
on the subject of the supplementary
civil rights bill, just before its
passage by the Senate. 1t was an able
effort, embracing points and arguments
that we have not met with elsewhere,
and to these we will devote the brief
space at our command. He araees
that the negro already possesses every
right in this bill, except that of equal
ity in schools, which he also possesses
in the reality, if not in appearance. He
has the same remedies at law as the
white man, and this bill only changes
matters by giving him penalty. The
Senator asks, supposing that the mix
ture in schools could be enforced, "Cui
bonol what advantage would it be
for me to force my child into
school where a large ele-
ment of the scholars were, by
reason of prejudice or otherwise, op-
posed to it? Suppose that antipathy
to arise from any cause whatever. Do
1 benefit the child? Is he made hap
pier? Is he made in a better condi-
ton of mind to pursue his studies, and
to acquire that for which he was sent
there?"
Again: MANY of our people, long
before the war as well as since, argued
that the power did not exist in the
State to tax property for the education
of children. Many minds accepted
that as sound argument. Tennessee
has been very reluctant about it al
ways, and as far as we could ever 60
was the establishment of county sys-
tenn, by which each county estab-
fishes such schools as it thinks
proper. By this one act you
sweep out of existence the whole COM
mon school system of the State. Whom
have you benefited? You have in
jured the colored man as well as
the poorer classes Of the white race
those who are dependent for education
on the common schools"
With the exception, perhaps, of |
schools, he asks very pertinently |
whether the rights mentioned in the |
bill, are rights appertaining to citizen
ship at all. "Is not the alien as much |
entitled to the benefits of an inn as
citizen. Can the inn-keeper refuse the
alien any more than the citizen? Is
not the remedy the same? Is it not so
with a common carrier? An alien, who
owes you no allegiance at all, has a
right to the equal privilegesof the CON-
mon carrier the same as the citizen.
Whence does man get any of these
rights? By virtue of your constitu-
lions? Or does he inherit it by the
common law as appertaining to man as
man and not as a citizen" So, the
Senator might have added, of all social
rights.
Next follows an argument of in
genious force, that if the negro
himself accepts this bill, he
thereby confesses himself an
race and that without the help
of legislation he cannot make himself
a man. He is already equal before the
law. Class distinctions do not repress
nature. Glasses exist under English
law and the plebeian may not enter the
places of mobiles, but that does not pre-
vent the coal heavens son from becom-
ing Lord Chancellor before whom the
Lord Duke bows. As the race must
work out its own destiny, it is bad pol
icy TO teach them to depend ON the
hand of power. Have they no pride
IF race and kindred? The Anglo
Saxon, sighted by another race, would
only glory the more that he was Ang To-
Saxon. So of all other peoples. Are
the blacks the sole exception? And if
defective in this respect, is it good for
the race to promote the defect by leg
slation? Il
Again, it is very dangerous to the
rights of the negroes for them to con-
Tess that the General Government
should regulate these matters rather
than the States. 1t is putting four
millions of blacks at the mercy of
thirty-five millions of whites. If the
whites are prejudiced, so much
The worse is this arrange
nent for the blacks. "In the
State of Mississippi the negroes con-
5rol. They can better take care of
themselves under its local laws than
rust to the tide of the turning and
shifting majoritIes of the American
Congress" So in South Carolina,
And in those States where they consti-
ute "a large minority Of the voters,