The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-03-26
from the Memphis Avalanche, 23d.]
VERY IMPORTANT DECISION.
THE CIvIL-RIGMTS ACT BEFORE
THE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT
COURT AT MEMPHIS.
111DGE EMMoNs CHARGES THE GRAND
JURY, THAT THE ACT Is UNcoN-
STTTGTIONAL.
FILL TEXT OF AN OPINION THAT WILL BE
READ AND ENDORSED THROUGHOUT /
THE COUNTRY.

Judge II. Fl. Emmons, of the United States
Circuit Court, yesterday gave the following
instructions In reference 10 the ciyil.rights
bill to the grand jury. The charge sfuli and
exhaustive, and speaks for itself in tue foi'
lowing words
1t is to be regretted that question OF such
exceptional importance, and one when Is
producing so much excitement, should come
before the court in this form. at an early
day, however, and during the term, we are
compelled by law to decide the matter you
lay before us.
The severe penalties imposed by this law
upon prosecuting attorneys and other OH
Gals will. we are advised, be attempted to he
enforced should the grand jury fail to indict,
in the assumption that their action will be
controlled by such officers unless the court
acts. Every consideration makes it duty
to answer your questions at once.
You ask whether it is q crime for which
YOU have right to find an indictment that
q negro has been denied "the full and equal
enjoyment of the accommodations, advanta.
ges, facilities, and privileges OF the theatres
and inns" of the State. Such denial is
not an offence over which Congress can give
this court jurisdiction. Those are matters
which the State Government. alone control.
The parties who think themselves az
grieved can bring their civil action in this
court at once. Any decision we may then
make can be reviewed by the supreme
Court.
In ordinary circumstances this brief reply
is all which we should make. 1t Is all which,
as very general rule, the prophecies Of such
occasions authorize. But such are the eX.
ceptional conditions which attend these
complaints before you, and such the excited
condition Of those classes whom the law was
intended to affect, that after much hesitation
we have yielded to an earnest request to
state in a simple and untechnical form the
reason upon which our advice rests. To do
this successfully, in haste. and without pre-.
paraton, is still more difficult for judge
than to treat the matter technically when adj
dressing the judicial and professional mind.
Until the three recent amendments to The
National Constitution, which abolished slave
~ and attempted to protect the civil and po-
liticaI rights of the freedmen, al! parties con.
coded that the Federal Government had no
power whatever 10 restrain such IN offence
as this. The punishment Of murder, arson,
assaults, ard batteries, treSpasses, frauds, in
juries to reputation, of distractions 10 the
right Of attending church, public schools,
theatres, and forcing the right Of being &C.
commodated in inns, and by common carriers
within the State, were matters not only not
granted to the General Government, but in
the Cons tuition itself expressly reserved to
the States. The vast mass OF civil and po-
ltical rights included in the compendious
phrase, the right Of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness" rested entirely under
State protection. To this familiar and un-
questioned truism there was universal assent
then. and is now. The only question pre-
sented for Judicial determination is. Have
these amendments completely revolutionary
the whole character Of our Government!
because it is entirely evident that il Congress
has the power of regulating the theatre and
"other places Of amusement" in Memphis
and other cities of the Union this necessarily
involves the power of protecting the more
sacred and important rights of the colored
citizen.
The thirteenth amendment abolished slave.
~ only. 1t did no more. 1t gave the freed
men no right OF protection from the Federal
Government superior to that of his white
fellow citiz.ns and no exemption from the
power of State control which might be eX-
ercsed against others. The right Of leglsla-
ton secured to Congress in the amendment
was that only Of creating penalties for vlo-
Iatiun Of its provisions. and providing secu-
rites against the establishment of slavery.
either generally or in particular instances. 1t
,ccords no more authority to enact that he
should have the right to vote, to testify, to
make contracts, to hold real estate, exercise
trades, attend public schools, or any other
matter or thing within the limits Of Il State,
than it does to enact the same thing in refer.
encc to white men. The utmost effect OF this
great provision in our Constitution was
10 make the colored man citizen, equal be.
fore the laws with the race which had en-
shaved him. For this purpose the fourteenth
amendment was by no means necessary. so
far as the control Of Congress is concerned,
the States were still free to legislate in refer
ence to what persons should attend theatres,
be accommodated at inns, or be transported
by common carriers within the States. AS
an illustration of unqncstioned local State
power anterior to this amendment we su9-
aest fact in the history Of the State OF Mich.
inan By the voice of the people 1t three
times denied the colored race, though taxed.
the right of voting. The Supreme Court of
that State sustained as lawful the action Of
steamboat master excluding coored per-
SON from the steamers clbin, compelling
him 10 take passage on the deck. These
Judges were high-toned gentlemen, of
far more than ordinary legal culture and
ability, and elected to their places by then
strongly predominant anti.slavery party in
the State. They sustained the action Of the
carrier as "a wholesome police regulation,
calculated, in view of our American educa.
ton and prejudices, TO secure peace anG bar
mopy In that department OF commerce and
business under his control. 1t was deemed
jpiudcous that the law should interfere
with bis action. The State Legislature, also
overwhelmingly anti.slavery in sentiment,
might have changed this rule, but refused to
do so. Against this action, political and ju-
dlcial, large and influential portion of the
people earnestly struggled and protested ;
| but all understood, from the numerous rul-
ings of the Supreme Court, there was no
power in Congress to interfere with the de-
csion of the judges and the people Of the
State. Like conditions, in greater or less
degree, characterized nearly every free State
in the Union. A nearly similar judgment, arts
ing upon facts since the amendment, has re-
Gently been pronounced by the learned Judge
of the Superior Court Of Cleveland, Ohio.
iu which he ruled that the manager OF a
. theatre might lawfully exclude from the
dress-circle colored person of ever so much
respectabilty. 1t would seem to be clear
that the abolition of slavery placed the negro
in the former slave States just where be haC
before stood In the free States. What Con
gress could not do in reference to a free
negro in northern State, where slavery
never existed before the abolition of slavery
it could not afterward do in regard to one
living in the South. We conclude with con
fdence that the thirteenth amendment die