Daily Republican., 1881-05-04
Attack ON the Supreme Court.

the Supreme Court Of the United States
for the decision rendered in the Neal
case. Who ever knew it to hesitate to
attack and befoul the Courts of Justice
whenever its purposes were crossed.
1t is wrong, decidedly wrong, to lntl-
mate that the Delaware Courts could
possibly err, or that they were moved a
particle by political bias but it is right,
entirely right, to attack and slander the
United States Supreme Court, the high
est and last Judicial resort in the ma
ton. 1t is really wonderful to see how
soon black becomes white and white
becomes black with that paper, just as
it is swayed by political prejudice. 1t
has not been long since that paper looked
upon Chief Justice Waite as q third
class Ohio lawyer and an unworthy sue
Cessor of Chief Justice Chase, but be-
cause he has diSSented from the opinion
of the majority of the Court, on ques-
tion of color and hence with that paper
n political question, he has become all
at once magnifed rs ono Of the purest
and clear headed Justices in the land
We are pleased that Chief Justice Waite
has stated his opinions in an emphatic
and independent manner, 1t stamps
him as the independent man that he is,
and he has risen no higher in the esti-
1nation of the Every Evening for his
action i'll the Neal case than he has i'll
our own. He has II right to differ and
he exercised that right No doubt he
saw the question in different light
from his other four brethren on the
bench who disagreed with him, but this
fact does not go to show that his Ju-
dicial mind was any clearer than the
minds of Justices Miller, Bradley, Ha;-
Ian and Woods. These last named JUS
tices tell us that there was ''an i'm
proper exclusion of COlOred men on
account of race from the juricS by
which Neal was indicted and tried, "
This was the point upon which they
based their decision Chief Justice
Waite did not dissent on this point, but |
he doubted that there had beeen any |
evidence Offered in the application OF
Mr. Higgins to quash the jury that
tried Neal, that the Levy Court really |
had Disseminated in the selection of
the .jurymen who were to compose the
panels Of the courts for that year We
can easily see how the Chief Justice
could make a stand there. The Levy
COuIt was too wide awake to leave any
evidence behind thatthey Disseminated
in the selection of jurors, yet the facts
are plaiH. mat they did discriminate.
:. Ii has been some fifteen years Sine"
the Fifteenth Amendment to the Con,
stitutiOn was passed by Congress ana
ratified by the States. This Amend
ment contains the principle that the
rights Of no citizen shall be abridged or
disseminated against on account Of
color or race. What are the facts il
the case? During all that time ha.,
there been single COored man pui
upon State jury, or in any way en-
paneled until the late session of the
Levy Court
Could this possibly happen withou,
1t is said, and we DO
not deny it without some show of reason,
that in many parts of the State colored
persons could not be found with suf1i-
cient education and Intelligence to serve
as jurors and hence the discrimination
in favor of white jurors. This may be
partially true and might be accepted a.
an honest intention to secure intelligent
jurors, were it not for the well-knowu
fact that from these sections Of the State
white men have been empaneled oL
iuries who were far below the avera :"
of the better and more intelligent c'.~, |
of colorcd citizens Of the same section
1t is hard to tell what further proof j.
wanted to prove discrimination again.'
colo1ed men as jurors, than the facr lJ.
tent to everybody, that there has never
until the last session Of the Levy CDur-.
been colored man subpHnTd upon the
jurie5 of the State.
Because the Supreme Court has, by
decisive majority, decided that discriu-
ination cannot be used in the selection
Of jurors on account Of color, the court p
is called degraded court, but as it ha, :
been called so by venal and degraded
journal it will have no other effect than >,
to sink the latter deeper into mora
obliquity. But we are told by the same
paper that the Supreme Court Of the
United States has usurped the au-
thority to say that there shall be no
more lawful punishment Of the crime II ;
rape when committed by negroes in
Delaware. This reckless assertion is -.
untrue and merits the contempt ofevery q
good and law-abiding citizen. The in /,
situation is that, with a colored man
upon a jury, no colored man can be con.
victed of rape. Facts show that the :;
colorsd men look upon the crime Of rape -,
with as much disgust as the whites,
and in more than one instance down ,
South where the particular kind Of law
that is favored and recommended by the
Every Evening is enforced colored men
have risen up and lynched those oftheir
own color who were guilty Of that de-
testable crime. Even in cases in the
s )uth where juries are sometimes com.
posed half and half alike of colored and