Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-10-23
THE CIVIL RIGHTS DECISION.
Fred Douglass and Colonel Ingerson
Address the Washington Meeting.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22.-The day fol-
lowing that on which the Supreme Court
decided the civil rights bill uncOnstitu-
tional Fred Douglass, Professor Gregory,
Hon. j. NJ. LangstOn and other prominent
colored men Of the District of Columbia,
called a meeting of colOred people
to consider the decision of the
court and the future of the col
Ored race as affected by that deci ion.
Tonight in response to a call an assem-
blage Of more than 2,0O persons, one-third
of them white, packed the hall in which the
meeting was held, and almost as many
more were unable even to secure entrance.
Professor j. NJ. Gregory presided, and
Fred Douglass, Colonel. Robert IngersOll,
Judge Shellabarger and Rev. DR.. Rankin
made speeches. Prominent colOred men
of Washington and several white
men. who have taken an active
part in the movements for
the welfare of the colored race,
occupied the platform. The assemblage
was remarkable for its enthusiasm and
apparent unanimity of sentiment with re-
spect to the matter which had prompted
the meeting. Fred Douglass, who was
the first speaker, said that the cOlOred
people had been wounded in the house of
their friends, and that the wound was too
deep, too fresh and too painful for the
measured speech of ordinary occasions.
The event which had brought about the
meeting was, he said, neither common
nor trivial, and it was surpassed in sig
nlticance and Importance by but few
events IN the nations history. 1t had
swept overland like a moral cyclone,
leaving moral desOlatiOn in its track.
'IIe looked at it, "he said, ''as one Ofthe
striking and shocking developments of the
conflict between the spirit of liberty and
the spirit of slavery" and speaking for
his race he said "that they felt it as they
had felt the furious attempt to force the
accursed system of slavery uDOn the soil
OF Kansas, the enactment of the fugitive
slave law, the repeal of the Missouri com
promise, and the Dred Scott decisiOn.D
He said the decision had inflicted a heavy
calamity upon the 1000, 600 of cOlOred peO-
Tle of this country, and had left them
naked and defenseless against the action
of malignant, vulgar and pitileSS prejudice
and that it presented the United States
before the world as II nation utterly desti-
tute of power to protect the rights of its
own citizens, and that in the humiliation
6 the cOlOred people of this country it
had humbled the nation. The court in
making this decision had, he said, con-
strued the Constitution in defiant diSre-
gard of what was intended by the adOp-
tiOn Of the Fourteenth amendment, and
had seen fit in this case, tretting Il weak
and much prosecuted people, to be guided
by the narrOWest and most restricted
rules of legal Interpretation. This was
in reversal OF all the principles by
which the court had been governed
in other days in the construction of the
Constitution and OF the laws respecting
the colOred race. Douglass concluded
with a wish for a Supreme Court which
should be as tue, as yigilant, as active
and as eXacting in maintaining laws en-
acted for the protection of human rights
as in other days that court was in en-
forcing laws for the destruction of human
rights, the last allusion being to the de-
cisiOns of the court on slavery questions
in ante bellum days.
Colonel Ingersoll spoke at great length.
He thought the decision unworthy of the
Supreme Court. He requested them not
to blame the Republican party for the de-
cisiOn until they saw whether or not il
would indOrse the action of the court.
Resolutions were adopted declaring,
among other things. that it is the duty OF
all lovers of their country and all friends
of justice to see to it that full and equal
protection of the laws is afforded to every
citizen, and that the Republican party
should be held to the enforcement of its
demand for complete liberty and equality
in the enjoyment of civil, political and
public rights; that the Democratic party
should be reminded of its declarations in
the National Convention of 1872 that it
recognized the equality of all men before
the law, and that it is the paramount duty
of the colored voter to give his aid and
support to that party or coalition of par
ties that will give force and meaning to
the utterances, pledges and demands of
the Republican and of the Democratic
apft in .Iaf of in
to the protection of cOlOred citizens in
their manhood rights.