National Republican., 1883-10-26

Now, conceding, for the sake of the argu-
ment that the admission to an inn, public
conveyance, or place of public amusement,
on equal terms with all other citizens is the
right of every man and all classes of men, is
it any more than one of those rights which
the states by the fourteenth amendment are
forbidden to deny to any person? And is
the constitution violated until the denial of
the right has some state sanction or author
ity? Can the act of q mere individual, the
owner of the inn, the public conveyance, or
place of amusement, refusing the accommo-
dation be justly regarded as imposing any
badge of slavery or servitude upon tine appli-
cant, or only as inflicting an ordinary civil
injury, properly cognzable by the laws of
the state and presumably subject to redress
by those laws until the contrary appears
After giving to these questions all the con-
sideration which their Importance demands,
we are forced to the conclusion that such an
act of refusal has nothing to do with slavery
or involuntary servitude, and that if it is
violative of any right of the party his re-
dress is to be sought under the laws of the
state; or if those laws are adverse to his
rights and do not protect him, his remedy
will be found in the corrective legislation
which congress has adopted, or may adopt,
for counteracting the effect of state laws,
or state action, prohibited by the fourteenth
amendment. 1t would be running the
apply to every act of discrimination which a
person may see fit as to the guests he will
entertain or as to the people he will take into
his coach or Gao or car or admit to his concert
or theater or deal with in other matters OF
intercourse or business. lnDkeepers and
public carriers, by the law of all the states, so
far as we are aware, are bound, to the extent
of their facilities, to furnish proper accommo-
dation to all unobjeCtionable persons who in
good faith apply for them. If the laws them
selves make any lust discrimination, amen
able to the prohibitions of the fourteenth
amendment congress has full power to afford
| a remedy under that amendment and in ac-
cordance with it,
When o man has emerged from slavery,
and by the aid of benefcent legislation has
shaken off the inseparable concomitants OF
that state, there must be some stage in the
progress of his elevation when he takes the
rank of n mere citizen, and ceases to be the
special favorte of the laws, and when his
rights as Il citizen or man are to be pro-
tected in the ordinary modes by which other
mems rights are protected. There
pie in this country before the abo-
lition of slavery, enjoying all the essential
rights of life, liberty, and property the same
as white citizens; yet no one, at that time,
thought that it was any invasion of their
personal status as freemen because they were
not admitted to all the privileges enjoyed by
white citizens, or because they were sub
jected to determinations in the enjoyment OF
accommodations in inns public conveyances,
and places of amusement Mere discrimina
| tions on account of race or color were not re-
garded as badges of slavery. If, since that
time, the enjoyment of equal rights in all
these respects has become established by con
stitutional enactment, it is not by force ol
the thirteenth amendment (Which merely
aboishes slavery, but by force Of the four
teenth and fifteenth amendments.
On the whole we are of opinion that NJ
countenance of authority for the passage OF
the law in question can he found in either
the thirteenth or fourteenth amendments OF
tho constitution, and no other ground OF
authority for its passage being suggested il
must necessarily be declared void, at least 81
far as its operation in the several states i!
| concerned