New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-03-14


chusetts. God has allotted certain places to GER
tain peoples says the old Apostle. Therefore Gov
eminent shall have no respect to places, says the
new. What God hath put asunder let man join
together is the revised version, the Massachusetts,
rendering of Holy Writ. Paul and Moses and
Massachusetts alike appeal to the fathers. Re-
member the days of old" says Moses, consider the
years Of many generations; ASA thy father, and he
will show thee, thy elders and they will tell thee.
When the Most High divided to the nations their
Inheritance when lie separated the sons Of Adam.
He set the bounds of the people
Senator HOar refers to our fathers with equal
flial respect. He says that they intended an
explicit affirmation that the right of every human
being who Obeys the equal laws to 90 everywhere
on the surface of the earth that his welfare may
require, is beyond the rghtful control of govern
ment."
Did they Did they intend it in February,
1903. when in Congress assembled, in Congress
in which were Signers Of the Declaration Of indie
pendence in a Congress serving under iIhomas
Jefferson President they enacted into law bya
unanimous vote in the Senate and by majority of
more than three to Que in the House:
That from and ter the st day Of April next no
master captain Of any ship vessel or any other
person, shall import bring cause TO be I'M
ported or brought. any negro, muiattO, or other
person of color, not beng native, citizen or reg
Istcred seaman of the / nItrd states, or seamen
natives OF countries beyond the Cape OF Good Hope,
into any port or place OF the II ied states, winch
port OF place sSal! he situated III any state when
10y law has prohibited or shall prohibit the admis-
OF Importation OF such negro, muato, or other
person Ol color and any captain or ma Ger atore-
said " any other person shall import or bring, or
cause to be imported brought into, any OF the
ports or places Aforesaid any oi me persons whose
admission or ImpOrtat on is prohibited rs aforesaid,
hr shall forfeit and pay the sum OF $1,000 Tor each
and every negro. mulatto OF other person OF color
aforesaid, brought or imported Is aforesaid to be
sued Tor and recoy cred by acton Of debt, IN any
/ Court of the Lnlted states.
SIC That no ship or vessel arriving in any of
the said ports or places OF the United states, and
! having on board any negro, mulattO, or other
person of color. not beng native. a citizen. or
registered seaman at the nited states, or re2nen
natives OF countries beyond the cape OF Hood nope
as Aforesaid, shall be admitted 10 an entry And II
any such negro. mulattO or other person OF color
shall be landed from on board any ship pr vessel II
any of the ports ur places aforesaid or on the coast
of any state prohibiting the admission or lmpOrta-
ton a. Aforesaid tue SAID ship vessel, together
with her tackle, apparel, aud furniture, snail he
forfeited To the United STATES and one-haif or the
proceeds of the sales On such forfeiture shall
uure and hc paid to such person or persons on
whose information the seizure on such forfeiture
shall be made
Thi, looks rs If our fathers intended to affirm
unite the contrary to what Senator Hoar says. IL
looks as if they meant to stand guard over their
own doors, and to open and to close them to whom
they Pleased They never 50 much as asked
whether their mu.atto brother would or would not
obey the equal laws They gave him no chance to
dlsobey. They dd not waste words on what human
welfare required Their own welfare required no
more Africans and they simply swept him OIL the
decks. They were not concerned about consist
eucy. They we're concerned only to succeed in
their experiment of founding a Republic Their
Declaration OF independence may have been gilt
bUt heir DtIt n
ton Of it was a sturdy and sinewy specially. They
may have founded their nation on the moral law
but they built IL up with statute law. They were
willing that all men should pursue happiness but If
they pursued it 20 America they had got to start
west Of the Cape OF Good Hope. They expended
small ingenuity on an as .um for oppressed races
They said to the oppressed races You shall not
| come into port They made short work Of equal
rights. They were not troubled by any one
blood" They said Llankly and frankly that they
would not have negro muidtto or copper-coiore TO
mudd.e their experiment They had no quarrel
with Paul about bounds. They ranged themselves
on the Lends side By driving a stake down firm at
the Cape of Good Hope. They did not trust Senator
Hoars divine barrier Of the water. They just stood
Oh the harf and grabbed every ship vessel tackle,
apparel furniture. captain and negro rs fast as
they came in. This was not in the sand Lots of
California IL was in The Congress of the United
States 1t was the law OF the land for seventy
years 1t may have been bad law. inhumaue. eX-
elusive opposed 10 the Declaration Of lndepen-
dence But it was framed by the trainers OF the
Declaration of Independence. and it was law. IL
was the law Of the land until the Burlngame
Treaty tempered with it, and it excluded the
Chinese more effectively than the bill now before
the Seuate Il va, the law oil the land and It never
worked evil All the trouble came from the revoca-
ton or neglect of this law. All the Pacific state
disturbance has come from violation of the Pauline
Mosaic. Jehersonian boundary law, and the substi-
tuition of the new law OF the new revelation that
everybody may go everywhere. Moses'5 fathers
and senator Hnar'S fathers may have been a wrong,
bat they agree in respecting the boundaries OF
nations: Massachusetts, denies to the community of
nations All family authority and declares the whole
word to be one great gypsy camp wherein black
and white and red may squat and stroll at pleas
ure. And if it comes tsticuiis in the motley
mass. my Massachusetts may be relied on to meet
every wrange with Thus saith the Lord--u1tiI
the brick bats begin to fly about her own ears.
GAIL HAMILTON.
UasbiaytJa, D. C.. March ., 1ss2.
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