The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-20

1880, the constitutionality of which rested,
as did that of 1793 solely upon the implied
| power of Congress to enforce the masters
| rights. The provisions of that act were far
| i'll advance OF previous legislation. They
placed at the disposal of the master seeking
to recover his fugitive slave, substantially,
| the whole power of the nation. 1t invested
commissioners, appointed under the act,
with power to summon the posse comitatus
for the enforcement of its provisions and
commanded al1 good citizens to assist in
its prompt and efficient execution whenever
| their services were required as part of the
! posse comitatus. Without going into the
details of that act 1t is sufficient to say that
Congress omitted from it nothing which the
utmost ingenuity could suggest as essential
to the successful enforcement of the masters
| claim to recover his fugitive slave. And this
| court, in Ableman VS.. Booth III How. 526),
adjudged ii to be sin all of its provisions
fully authorized by the constitution of the
| United States"
The only other decision, prior to the
| adoption of the recent amendments to which
| reference will be made, is bred Scott VS..
| Sanford (19 How, $780, This suit was in
| stltuted in a Circuit Court of the United
| States by bred Scott, claiming to be a citizen
of Missouri, the defendant being citizen OF
| another State. Its object was to assert the
title of himself and family to freedom. The
| defendant pleaded in abatement to the iuris-
diction of the court that Scott-being of
| African descent whose ancestors of pure
| African blood, were brought into this coun-
! try and sold as slaves-was not a citizen.
| The only matter in issue, said the court, was
| whether the descendants of slaves so i'm
| ported and sold, when they should be eman-
| cipated, or who were born of parents who
| had become free before their birth, are citi-
zens of a State in the sense in which the
| word citizen" is used in the constitution of
the United States.
In determining that question the court in
stituted an inquiry as TO who were citizens
OF the several States at the adoption of the
| constitution, and who at that time, were rec
ognized as the people whose rights
and liberties had been violated by the
British government. The result was
declaration, by this court, speaking through
Chief Justice fancy, that the legislation
and histories of the times, and the language
used in the Declaration of Independence,
showed "that neither the class of persons
who had been imported as slaves, nor their
! descendants, whether they had become free
or not, were then acknowledged as a part of
the people, nor intended to be included in
the general words used in that instrument"
that they bad for more than a century be-
| fore been regarded as beings of an inferior
race, and altogether unRt to associate with
! the white race either in social or political re-
lations, and so far inferior that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to re-
spect, and that the negro might justly and
| lawfully Ne T6uuC6u 10 Slavery IOT MS DGne-
fit" that he was bought and sold and treated
as an ordinary article of merchandise and
| traffic, whenever a profit could be made by
it, and, that this opinion was at that time
fixed and universal in the civilized portion
of the white race. 1t was regarded as
axiom in morals, as well as in politics,
which no one thought of dsputing, or
supposed to be open to dispute; and men
in every grade and position in society daily
and habitually acted upon it in their private
| pursuits, we'll as in matters of public con-
Germ, without for moment doubling the
| correctness of this opinion"
The judgment of the court was that the
words people of the United States" and
citizens meant the same thing, both de-
scribing "the political body who, according
to our republican institutions, form the
| sovereignty and hold the power and conduct
the government through their representa-
tives;" that they are what we Familiarity call
| the sovereign people, and every citizen is
one of this people and a constituent member
| of this sovereignty;" but that the class of
persons described in the plea in abatement
| did not compose portion of this people,
were not included, and were not intended
| to be included, under the word citizens in
the constitutions" that, therefore, they could
''claim none of the rights and privileges
| which that instrument provides for and Sc
cures to citizens of the United States" that,
ION the contrary, they were at that time con-
sidered as a subordinate and inferior class of
beings, who had been subjugated by the
dominant race, and, whether emancipated or
not, yet remain subject to their authority,
and had no rights or privileges but such as
those who held the power and the govern
ment might choose to grant them"
THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.
Such were the relations which, prior to
the adoption OF the thirteenth amendment,
existed between the government whether
national or state, and the defendants,
whether free or in bondage, of those of
African blood, who had been imported into
this country and sold as slaves.
The first section thereof provides that
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as punishment for crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction" Its
second section declares that Congress shall
have power to enforce this article by appro-
pirate legislation" This amendment was
followed by the civil-rights act of April O.
1866 which, among other things provided
that "all persons born in the United States,
and not subject to any foreign power, ex-
Guiding Indians not taxed, are hereby de-
cared to be citizens of the United States"
ID Stat, 81 The power of Congress, in this
mode, to elevate the race thus liberated to
the plane of national citizenship was main
tanned by the supporters of the act
of 1866 to be as full and complete as it's pow
err, by the general statute, to make the chill
dren, being of full age, of persons natural
lied in this country, citizens of the United
States without going through the process of
naturalization. The act of 1866, in this re-
spect was also likened to that of 1S43, in
which Congress declared "that the Stock
bridge tribe of Indians, and each and every
one of them, shall be deemed to be, and are
hereby declared to be- citizens of the United
States to all intents and purposes, and shall
be entitled to all the rights, privileges and
respects be subject to the laws of the United
States" Ii the act OF 1866 was valid, as con-
ferring national citizenship upon all en-
| braced by Its terms then the colored race