The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-04-02
Civil Rights.
Important Charge of Judge Emmoms to
the Grand Jury.

Important Charge of Judge Emmoms tO
the Grand Jury.
At Memphis, on the 22d, Judge En-.
mons, of the United States court, de-
liVered an elaborate and exhaustive
charge to the grind jury in reference
to civil rights He said 1t is to be
regretted that question of such excep-
tiOnal importance and one which is pro-
ducing so much excitement, should
come before the court in this form. At
an early day, however, and during the
term, we are compelled to decide the
matter you lay before US. The several
penalties imposed by this law upon
will, we are advertised, be attempted
to be enforced should the grand jury
fail to indic5, an assumption that their
action will be controlled by such officers,
unless the court acts. Every consider
alton makes it duty to answer your
| questions at once. You ask whether it
is crime for which you have right to
find an Indictment that a negro has
been denied the full and equal enjoy
ment of the accommodations, advant-
ages and privileges of theatres and inns
in this state. Such denial Is not an Of
Tense over which congress can give this
court jurisdiction. Those are matters
which the state government alone con-
trolls. Parties who think themselves
aggreved can bring their civil action
in this court at once. Any decision we
may then make can be reviewed by the
supreme court. He then gives his rea-
sons for entering into the details of the
case, which are mainly the excited con-
ditiOn of the classes whom the law was
intended to affect. Until three recent
amendments to the national constitu-
ton, which abolished slavery and at
tempted to protect the civil and politi-
cal rights of the freedmen, all parties
conceded that the federal government
had no power, whatever, to restrain
such an offense as this. The punish
ment of murder, arson, assaults and
batteries, tresspasses, frauds, injuries
to reputation, obstruction to the right
of attending church, public schools,
theatres and forcing the right of being
accommodated in inns, and by common
carriers within the state, were mat
ters not only not granted to the
general government, but in the con-
stitution itself expressly reserved
to the states. The vastness of civil
and political rights included in the
cOmpendous phrase, "right to life, " lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness"
rested entirely under state pro-
lection. To this familiar and unques-
toned truism there was universal
assent then, and is now. The only
question present for judicial determin-
alton is, have these amendments COM
pletly revolutionized the whole charac-
ter of our government. because, it is
certainly evident that, if congress has
the power of regulating the theater
and other places of amusement in Mem
phis and other cities of the Union, this
necessarily involves the power of pro-
tecting the more sacred and important
rights of the colored citizen. He then
reviews the thirteenth amendment, and
declares that it abolished slavery and
did no more. He also reviews, at great
length, the fourteenth amendment, and
says the clauses forbidding states to
deprive any person of life, liberty or
property. without due process of law,
or deny to any person the equal protec-
tion of the law, have no application to
this subject. They are intended solely
to prevent the arbitrary transfer of
legal adjudication or process, and pre-
vent the establishment of tribunals for
one class of persons varying from those
which detirmine the rights of all. |
These inhibitions, too, beyond all con-
troversy, are aimed at the action of the
state only, and have no reference to in
dividuals. He cites decisions in Michi-
gan and Ohio in support of this, and |
also the slaughter house cases of |
the supreme court-sixteenth Wallace
and then deals at great length with the
outrages against the colored race, and
his sympathy with that large
and respectable class of our fellow-cl
zens, including beyond question, ma
jority of the more conservative, Chris
tian gentlemen of the south, who regret
that there exists nowhere in either gov
eminent, state or national, the power
of Furnishing those mean and coward
ly murderers.