Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-03-23
Under the Civil Rights Bill the
Negro Can Only Bring
a Civil Suit for
Damages.
United States Circuit Judge EmmOns
Instructs the Grand Jurors
ON Certain Civil Rights
Cases Brought Be-
fore Them.

We append the gist Of the opinion Of
Judge 81, H. Emmons, United States
Circuit Judge. delivered yesterday to the
Grand Jury. Judge Emmons goes or
at length and learnedly to give his rea-
sons for reaching his conclusions, and
gives an exhaustive history of the thir-
teenth and fourteenth amendments and
the famous Slaughter. house.cases. The
Grand Jury had theater and other cases
before them, and asked for instructions
as to the civil rights bill. Judge
Emmons gave the following ~instruc-
tons:
1t is to be regretted that a question Of
such exceptional Importance, and one
which 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 officials will, we are advised, be al
tempted to be enforced should the Grand
Jury TAIL to indict, in the assumption
that their action will be controlled by
such officers unless the Court acts.
Every consideration makes it a duty to
answer your questions at once.
You ask whether it is a crime for which
you have a right to find an indictment,
that a negro has been denied "the full
and equal enjoyment of the accommo.
d%ations, advantages, facilities and
privileges of the theAters and inns" of
the State. Such a denial is not an Of.
tense over which Congress can give this
Court jurisdiction. Those are matters
which the State Government alone CON
troll.
The parties who think themselves az
grieved can bring their civil action in
this court at once. Any decision we NAV
then make can be reviewed by the Sn-
preme Court.
Untll The three recent amendments to
the National Constitution, which abol.
lshed slavery and attempted TO protect
the civil and political rights of the freed
men, all parties conceded that the Fede.
raj Government had no power whatever
to restrain such an offense as this. The
only question presented for judicial de-
termination is, have these amendments
completely revolutionized the whole
character of our %Government2 Because
1t IS entirely evident that if Congress
has the power Of regulating the theater
and other places of amusement" in
Memphis and other cities of the Union
this necessarily involves the power of
protecting the more sacred and impor.
tant rights OF the colored citizen.
All understood, from the numerous
rulings of the Supreme Court, there was
no power in Congress TO interfere with
the decision of the judges and the peo.
pie of the State. Like conditions. in n
greater or less degree, characterized
nearly every free State in the Union. A
nearly similar judgment, arising upon
facts since the amendment, has recently
been pronounced by the learned Judge
OF the Superior Court of Cleveland. O..
in which he ruled that the manage of a
theater might lawfully exclude from the
dress-circle a colored person Of ever so
much responsibility. 1t would seem to
be clear that the abolition of slavery
placed the negro in the former slave
States just where he had before stood in
the tree States. What Congress could
not do in reference to a free negro in a
Northern State, where slavery never ex-
listed, before the abolition of slavery. il
could not afterward do in regard to one
living in the South. We conclude with
confidence that the thirteenth amend.
ment did not authorize Congress to in
terfere with the private and internal
regulations of theater managers, hotel
keepers or common carriers within the
State, in reference to eolored persons,
any more than it did in regard to their
white fellow.citizens.
The only provision of the Fourteenth
amendment which affects this question
is that which provides that mo State
shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges and immuni-
ties OF the citizens of the United States"
1t would be as useless as it would be i'm.
proper, in view OF the authoritative iudg-
nent of the court of last resort, 10 do
more than to explain Just what it An.
nounces. In what are known as the
Slaughter-house cases 10th Wallace two
points were established. First, that this
clause prohibited the action of the State
alone, and gave Congress NO power to
leglslate against the wrongs and per.
sonal violence Of the citizen. Second.
that the privileges and immunities which
a State could not abridge we're only that
limited class which depended immediate
~ upon the Constitution of the United
States. They are lew in number, aud
OF little Importance to the great mass of
the colored race in Their present condi.
ton. The right to pass from State to
State and to the national capital; to pro-
lection upon the high seas and in for
eign c9pntries, and q few others, we're
stated as Illustrations. The great body
Of our civil and political rights, that Of
acquiring and enjoying property, real
and personal, to exoreise trades, attend
schools and churches, to be protected
against personal violence, aud enjoy the
freedom Of opinion, were declared to
rest entirely under State protection, and
were not included in this amendment.