Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1875-10-14
vocates of his act clain to.derive the
power to pass it. The clause of the
fourteenth amendment under consid-

5eration isin theseswor - :
"No State Shall make Of enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunitles of citizens Of the United
States nor shall any State deprive any
person Of life, liberty or property with
ont due process Of law; nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection Of its laws"
The State is aere'directly addressed
and limited By this amendment, and
not its private citizens or its constitu.
ted authorities. It is State that is to
be dealt with, and not alone the validi-
ty of its laws. How can State vic.
late the prohibitions imposed upon it
by this amendment? Certainly i'll no
other way than by an act passed by its
Legislature, which is its supreme pow
er. In other words, the only way
possible for a State to violate this
amendment the only way possible for
the amendment to be violated by any
one-is by the passage. Of lawin con
flict with its provisions. But this act
Of Congress is not directed against any
State laws, and is.not based upon the
assumption that they are improper,
unjust, or void. 1t is not pretended
that any law i'll violation of this
amendmen; has bech passed by any
Stale. On the contrary, the act con
cedes the correctness and validity of
the State laws, and arms all Its penal
ties against private citizens who break
them. 1t has to do with acts Of PR
yate violence, and declares them to be
not only denial to the parties injured
of the equal protection of the laws, but
a denial made by the very State whose
authority is outraged. In one portion
it is expressly said that if the constitut
ed authorities Of the State-that is, th
governor, judges; sheriff, &c, shall fail
or unable to protect the people snch
fact shall be deemed denial by such
State of the equal protection Of the
laws. The other portions require no
such official default, attempt no such
definitions, and are aimed exclusively
at wrongs done by Individuals 1t is
a monstrous perversion of legal Ian
guage and legal thought to maintain,
as this act does, that any violence or
wrong done by private citizens, either
singly or in numbers, either with or
without concert can constitute the
denial of the equal protection Of the
laws contemplated by the fourteenth
amendment IT, therefore. the position
assumed in this statute be correct,
Congress and the national courts may,
with equal pcoprety, draw to themsel-
YES jurisdiction over all crimes and be-
come the sole guardians of order-the
single repositories Of police authority
But we have not space to pursue the
argument further. The limits Of this
address forbid it. We conclude in the
language of an able article on this subs
ject: "To sum up the results This
act violates the letter of the Constitu-
ton by declaring that to be u rebellion
against the United States, which is
nothing more than violence to indiyid-
uals, and by permitting the writ of
habeas corpus to be suspended in time
of peace by authorizing the President
to employ the military forces in re.
pressing opposition to the State laws
without any application from State
authorities; by extending the prohibi-
tons Of the Fourteenth amendment to
cases Of private wrongs, and by cloth
ing the national courts with jurisdic-
ton over ordinary crimes and with the
function Of ordinary police repression,
it violates the entire spirit of the Con.
stitution by comforting upon the Presi
dent IN time Of peace military discre-
ton Which belongs to him only as
in chief in time Of actual
war, and by destroying the seperate
Of the States within their
spheres. which was firmly
established in the Constitution as an
feature in our institutions.
Claiming to derive authority from these
provisions Congress passed the civil
rights bill, and sought by an act OF
Congress in violation Of the laws OF ma
ture to effect social equality between
the whites and blacks and by virtue
of the same provisions, the effort was
made to pass the force bill, which
would have placed the States at the
mercy of the Federal Executive.
These are the measures of the Re-
publican party which more Immediate
y affect the South, and they have b ecu
with cruel and unsparing
land.
In pursuance of this system Of meas
Tres we have seen governments set up
II the Southern States without the
Of the governed, and so dis
asteful to the people that the Repub-
lean party have been forced to UNFOLD |
hem either by threats Of the bayonet |
or by its actual presence in their midst,
md which have not only brought scan
lal upon the American name, but |
threaten 81. Domingo war Of races,
md the adoption by many of the States
If the policy of reputation.
In the case of Louisiana we have
een Federal court, acting under the
Inspiration of Federal ofliceholders, by
/ decree Of chancery enjoin the Execu-
i've Of the State from performing his
Executive functions, and the Legisla-
ure of the same State from assembling
It its capital ; and through the United
States Marshall revolutionize the State
government, and put a new governor
md Legislature in operation under
Federal bayonets, and thus an inferior
federal judge overthrows State gov
and effects revolution by
ill of injunction.
And We have further seen the goys
thus installed by fraud and
orna oyarthrown hv an IiDriain,r Of tLo