The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-07-16
PROGRESS AT THE SOUTH.

While the president is applying the same
policy to the south az TO the nortt-leaving
each state to govern itself in its own way
and by its own laws-and while there is SO
much opposition manifested toward that
policy on the part of some at the north
that is, opposition to its application to the
south-becsuse it it is said that the south
has not as yet accepted the situation
and is governed by the same principles and
feelings as during and before the rebellion,
aad that her courts cannot be relied upon
to give justice and do equity, it is well
enough, occasionally, to refer to the
marked progress made in certain portions
of the south during the past few years.
OF all the states in the Union, the north
Is accustomed to look upon Texas, which
gave hundred thousand democratic ma
jority in 1875. and elected Richard Coke to
the United States senate over John Han
cock because the former was confeder-
ate officer and the latter was tinctured with
unionism, as the most benighted of south
crn states, yet her courts have recently CIV
en- proof that the people of that state I'M
derstand that the condition of affairs has
changed since 1865, and that what was
good law then may be very poor law now.
During and prior to the rebelllon-dur-
Ing the days of slavery-the laws against
colored races were very stringent, AID
such marriages were declared void and
the offspring thereof illegitimate. In adj
dition to this such marriages we're criminal
and penalties were attached to the crime
The crime, however, consisted not in the
moral nature of the act, but in its political
and social effect. AS has been well said
the offense was the lifting Of the coloreC
person out of the infeIiority of subjectior
by the implication of equality which wa
inseperable from marriage. 1t was al
much crime for person of pure eau
casian blood to marry one whose African
descent could only be known by tracing |
as 1t was to marry full blooded Cong
negro freshly imported. In enforcing thi
code of morals, ethics, or whatever the.
might call it, the legislature of Texas, II
1858, passed the following law:
fany white person shall, within thi
state, knowingly marry a negro or perso
of mixed blood, descended from negro an
cestry to the third generation inclusive
though one ancestor of each generatio
may have been a white person, or havin
80 married in or out of this state, shall cor
tinue within this state to cohabit with sue
negro or such descendant of negro, he Q
she shall be punithed by confinement /
the penitentiary not less than two nor MOI
than five years.
Under this statute one Webb was indie
cd and the case came on for trial befol
Judge Pedgo of the first judicial c.rcui
In the last week of June, when Webb
counsel moved to quash the indictment o
the ground that, as one of the results {
the war Of the rebellion and of reconstru
tlon, the law was obsolete, and the motto
was granted, In granting the motion
Judge Pedigo considered, at length, Il
reason and object OF the law saying, tn
at the time of the enactment slavel
was not only sanctioned, but che
ished, and that the law was
part Of 80 policy to make the bonds while
bound the slave inexorable--to exit
"guish and withdraw from his eye eve
"gleam of hope for freedom, or for
change In the condition of his seryitude
that the object was not to prevent amalQ