The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-09-15

pressing necessity OF our people iLGH w
: food and rament; but even then, as aboy
Y shown, provision was made more Iiber.
than in the Northern States, for the edit
:. cation Of apprenticed freedmen. As lat
as the 9th Of March. 1865, (the very yea
IN which this legislation was had Ind
ana re-enacted provision which had lon
= been standing on her statute books tina
/ the school taxes should only be collectet
from whites, and only white children
should 60 the public schools, and in Iii
nois, the school tax was TO be divideC
, between the whites and blacks, by givin.
to each race what that race paid Which
considering the poverty and small numbe
of blacks, was an efectual exclusion o
that race from the benefits of education
In Nebraska the common schools were foi
whites only, till 1869.
{ The police regulations and provision,
against yagrancy, as applied to free ne
groes and mulattOes were also more strin-
gent in the Northern States than those
contained in the legislation of 1865. In
Massachusetts,, long after slavery was
abolished, negroes and mulattoes were
prohibited from entertaining any negro or
mulattO servants, i. e., apprentices. In
/ w.,
prohibited from keeping any public house
OF entertainment, or saloon nor were
such persons allowed to keep disorderly
| private house, nor entertain al their own
| private dwelling at unreasonable hours, or
M an ertraUagalt manner, any person,
whatever, under penalty of having their
private house keeping broken up, and
| themselves bound out to service for two
| years. And in Illinois no person was
allowed to permit three or more servants
of color to meet at his house for the pur-
pose of dancing and revealing.
Intermarriages between whites on one
side, and negroes and mulattoes on the
other were prohibited, and made void in
most OF the Northern States. In Massa-
| chusetts the provision was that g no one
Of the English, Scot or other Christian
| Nation, shall intermarry with a negro or
mulatto, and penalty of $4,000 was
imposed on any minister soIemnizing such
a marriage. In Rhode Island intermarri-
ages between whites colored and persons
We're prohibited and made void, and this
provision was re-enacted as late as 1872
This provision was le-enacted IN Maine,
in the Revision Of 1871. InOhio, Indi-
ana, Illinois, Michigan and Nebraska, and
probably in other States, such intermar-
riages were declared void, and these pro-
visions were re-enaCted in some of these
States, since the conclusion of the war
In Illinois and Indiana such intermarri-
ages were so thoroughly condemned, that
the parties to them were punished by
confinement in the Penitentiary. And in
Illinois they were also punished by whip
ping, and an officer granting license for
such Il marriage was made, thereafter
ineligible to office. In these last two
States, as a condition Of settling and re-
naming there, in addition to what has
been before set forth, colored persons
were required to give bonds, in large
penalties, which Were to be forfeited upon
the least violation Of the laws of the State
by them.
As to the right of voting the laws
stringent as against persons of the African
race.
In Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indi- |
ana Ilinoi aatla 2Ya NNg9IhajdT39n Wisconsin,
negroes and mulattoes were pr0h1Dited
from voting; and in nearly all of these
(see appendix the provision remained
unchanged until the adoption of the 10Th
amendment, in 1870. lii many of these,
The provision excluding negroes and mu-
lattoes from voting remains unchanged IN
terms in their present constitutions, and
their right to vote in these States rests
entirely in the 10Th amendment. twill
be noted, too, that in some Of these
States, unnaturaIized foreigners and In
dams were allowed to vote, yet the right
was denied to persons Of African descent.
And it will be noted also, that this eX-
exclusion obtained in the States where
the colored population was so small that
if they had been allowed to vote, the eX-
ercise OF the right by them would have
had but little effect on the result of the
elections.
That the right of voting was almost
universally considered as belonging solely
to the whites in the Northern States, up
to the adoption of the 10Th amendment.
| refer to the proclamations Of President
Lincoln, dated December 1868, and
July, 1864, and designed to secure Il re-
construction of the Southern States, IN
which suffrage was confined to whites
only and Congress, IN the year 1864,
passed an Act for the same purpose, CIV
ing only whites the right to vote.-See
L. s Statutes at Large, vol Is, PIP. 131
and IA.
And in Mr. Lincoln'- proclamation,
above referred to, dated December, 1868,
this remarkable passage occurs That
any provision that may be adopted by
such State government, referring to the
State governments to be reconstructed IN
the Southern States, under his proclama-
ton in relation to the freed people OF
such State, which shall recognize and
declare their permanent freedom, provide
for their education, and which may yet
be consistent, as temporary arrangement,
with their present condition rs tdb0riag,
la,ldless and homeless class, will not be OBJ
iected to by the National Executive,
Tmeaning himself And in speech
which he made afterwards, on the 18th
of April, 1868, at Washington, being
the last speech ever made BY him, he dis
tinctly admitted that he referred by this
clause TO a temporary apprenticeship of
| freedmen, after their emancipation.
I The war ended in the summer of 1860,
/ The slaves were emaneipated, suddenly,
without previous preparation. The eman-
cipation was sweeping, including all
Many thousands of the freedmen had
! abandoned their homes, and had congre-
gated in the cities, and were living on
+ the bounty of the Freedman's Bureau.
The State had just been devastated by
war. The people were without proper
farming implements and stock, and with
out the means of buying them. Proper
+ fa0J ooH xvoro NOT RI no had A
large number of men had just re-
turned from the army, without the means
of support, and without employment.