Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-19
SINGLE COPIES THREE GENTS.
Monday, November I9, 1883.
JUSTICE HARLAN's OPINION.

JUSTICE HARLAN'B OPINION.
 When the Supreme court of the United States decided that the Civil Rights act was unconstitutional Justice Harlan dissented from the opinion of the rest of the court. His opinion has just been filed, and 1t Is interest ing reading.
 Justice Harlan thinks his associates on the Supreme court bench based their opinion in the Civil Rights cases upon grounds entirely too narrow and artificial He ssys: The substance and spirit of the recent amend ments of the Constitution have been sacri- feed by subtle and ingenious verbal criti- cism. Constitutional provisions adopted in the interest of liberty and for the purpose of securing, through national legislation if need be. rights inhsring in . stats of freedom and belonging to American citizenship, have been 50 construed as to defeat the ends the people desired to accomplish, which they attempted to accomplish, and which they supposed they had accomplished by the changes in their fundamental law. By this I do not mean that the determination of these cases should have been materially controlled by considerations of mere expediency or policy. I mean only, In this form, to express an earnest conviction that the court has departed from the familiar rule repairing, in the interpretation of con- stitutional provisions, that full effect be given to the intent with which they were adopted.
 In order to show what the people meant by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amend msnts Justics Harlan carefully reviews the relations which existed before the adoption of the amendments between the national gov ernment and the institution of slavery as in dicated by the provisions of the Constitution, the legislation of Congress and the dsciSions of the United States Supreme court. He then quotes the provisions of the Thirteenth amendment and says thss when it was de- termiaed, by a change in the fundamental law, to uproot the institution of slavery wherever 1t OxiSted in this land and to sstsb- fish universal freedom, there was . fixed pur- pose to place the power of Congress in the promises ibeyond Che possibility of doubt And be asks: Did the freedom thus established involve nothing more than sxsmption from actual slavery? Was it the purpose of the nation simply to destroy the institution and then remit the race thsrstofore held in bon dage to the several States for such protection in their civil rights, necessarily. growing out of freedom, as those States ia their discre- tion chose to provide? Were the States, against whose solemn protest the institution was destroyed, to be left perfectly free, so far ss national interference was concerned, to make or allow observation-disclosures against that rscs, as such, in the enjoyment of those fun damental rights that inhere in State of free dom2 He then points out what tho legal rights of the negroes arc in respect of the &C., commodations, privileges and facilities of public conveyanees, inns and places of pub lie amusement, and says that Congress in the Thirteenth amendment has not in those matters entered the domaia of State control and supervision. It simply declares, in ef- feet, that since the nation has established un- ivsrsal freedom in this country for all time there shall be no discrimination, based mere ly upon racs or color, in respect of the legal rights in the accommodations and advan- tages of:publie conveyances, inns and places of public amusement.
 Justice Harlan also reviews at some length the grievances of the colored people which the Fourteenth amendment wes intended to redress. and discusses the opinion of the Court in its bearing on this amendment. Toward the close of his opinion he speaks as follows: 'I venture, with all respect for the opinion of others, ts insist that ths national legislature may, without transcsnding the Unite of the Constitution, do fer human Hb- erty and the fundsmSn rights of American citizenship whasit did, with the sanction Of this Court, for the protection of slavery and the rights of the masters of fugitive slaves.''
 The opinion is . very Abls one. It Is, per haps, little singular that such an opinien should como from the only southerner of the court. A great many, both white and black, will feel that Justice Harlan has the best of the argument.