The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-04-01
Butler on Civil Rights.

BuClST OU Vlt1A ASA6HUo'
The following letter emates from the Hon
BENJAMIN F. Butler, late Congressman from tne tnt,e;
district of Essex, in Massachusetts, ana VIII
determine some doubts hitherto existing IN
manv intelligent minds IS to the exact scope ol
the famous Civil Rights act:. - ,o,r
WAsHINGToN, March IL, 1879.
SR-J have the pleasure to acknowledge re-
ceipt of yours of the 14th, containing expires.
sions of appreciation of my efforts in behalf OF
the Civil Rights bill, for which accept my
thanks. You further ask, will you be Rlnu
enough to inform me if colored men are EMU
tied to the privileges of saloons ana oaroef
shops under its provisions Z"
AN UNENvIED PRIVILEGE
To this I answer II understand by "sa-
looms" YOU mean drinking saloons, and am
happy to say it does not give any right to
colored man to 90 into drinking saloon with
out the leave of the proprietor, and am very
glad it does not am willing to coneede, as
q fr;end to the colored man, that the white race
NAV have at least this one superior privilege 10
the colored man, that they can drink IN Dar-
rooms and saloons, and 1 never shall do any
thing to interfere with the exercise OF that hlgn
and distinctive privilege. / would not advo-
cate bill which should give that right to the
colored man. If were to vote for any Dill on
this subject at ALL, it would be ore to keep the
colored man out Of the drinking saloons; and
I hope no barkeeper will ever let colored man
have glass of liquor at any bar open tor drinS-
ing. Indeed, T should be glad, whenever col
ored man should 90 into drinking saloon for
the purpose of drinking at the bar if somebody
would at once take him and put him out, doing
him as little injury as possible. He could 90
&boo oo1orad n urlqtnr Kindness.
PRIVACY OF BARBER SHOP.
As to the other branch of your question, in
reference to barber shops, let me say that the
trade of a barber is like any other trade, to be
carried on by the man who is engaged in it at
his own will and pleasure, and the Civil Rights
bill has nothing to do with its exercise A
barber has right to shave whom he pleases,
or a blacksmith to shoe such colored horses as
he pleases In other words, these are not pub
lie employments, but private business, IN which
the law does not interfere.
CoLoRED MANS RIGHTS AT COMMON LAW.
From time immemorial all men have had
equal rights at the common law IN places OF
public amusement, in public conveyances and
in inns or licensed taverns, because all such
business was for the public under special priv
ileges granted by the government. The thea
tire and like public amusements were licensed
by the public authorities and protected by the
police. The public conveyances used the
Kings highway. The public inn had the spe-
cial privilege of lien or claim upon the bag
gage or other property of any traveller using it
for his keep; and if any man was refused,
while behaving himself well and paying his
fare, a seat in any place of public amusement,
or carriage by public conveyance, or shelter IN
a public inn, he had at common law right OF
action against the party SO refusing. The Civ
il Rights bill only confirms these rights OF all
citizens to the colored man in consideration OF
the prejudice aganst. him and an attempt in
certain parts of the country to interfere with
the exercise of those common law rights, and
has enacted penalty as means of enforcing
the right in this behalf in consideration of his
helpless and dependent condition. The Civil
Rights bill has not altered the colored mans
rights at all from what they were before under
the common law applicable to nearly every
State in the Union. 1t has only given him
greater power to enforce that right to
meet the exigency of combined effort to deprive
coIoted citizens of it; and all idea that the
Civil Rights bill allows the colored man to force
himself into any mans shop or into any mans
private house. boarding house or establishment
other than those have named is simply an ex-
hibition of ignorance as we'll as, in some cases,
of insufferable prejndce and malignity. And
while would sustain any colored man in firm
ly and properly insisting upon his rights under
the Civil Rights bill, which were his at com
mon law as they we're the right of every cit-
zen, yet should oppose to the utmost of my
power any attempt on the part of the colored
men to use the Civil Rights bill as pretence
to interfere with the private business of private
parties 1t is beneath the dignity of any color
ed man so to do and all acts such as shutting
him our from drinking saloons, may be we'll
left to the ignorant and generally vicious men
who keep them as badge of their superiority
to the colored race. I have the honor to be,
&C., ,n