Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-11-01
THE CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS.
Declared to be Unconstitutional
COlOred Aspirants for Social Equal
ity Enforced Through LegisIa.
ton Defeated.

Under the Thirteenth and Four
teenth Amendments to the National
Constitution, q republican Congress
passed in 1875 what is known as the
Civil Rights Bill, declaring that all
persons within the jurisdiction of the
United States shall be entitled to
the full and equal enjoyment of the
accommodations, advantages, and
privileges of inns, public conveyan-
ces on land and water, theatres and
other places of public amusement,
subject only to the conditions and
limitations established by law and
applicable alike to citizens of every
race and color, regardless of any
previous condition of servitude and
providing in second section for a
forfeit of $500 and a penalty of from
$500 to 81. 900 or Imprisonment from
thirty days to year for each offence
of withholding the privileges granted
as above. Several complaints by ne
groes of violation of this act having
been carried to the Supreme Court,
that body declared that Congress had
no authority to pass such statute.
The decision sets forth that the
thirteenth amendment relates exclu-
sively to slavery, which has long ceas-
ed and is not likely to be revived !;
and that the fourteenth is applicable
to states only, and like similar con-
stitutional denials of power to them,
confers no authority upon the general
government except where state or
states attempt to exercise the juris-
diction thereby surrendered.
Some parties think this decision
will supply splendid opportunity of
rallying negro votes to the Republican
party by proposing an additional con-
stitutional amendment, granting what
they demand, but there is not state
in this union, to-day, that would give
up further control of its internal af-
fairs for all the negroes that inhabit
this continent. The civil rights law
was never anything but tub thrown
overheard by the Republican party
for the colored element to play with.
It never secured for them the first
class accommodations their would be
great men so ardently aspired to. In
point of fact too, It was practically
repealed by public sentiment every
where long before the supreme court
rendered its decision.
The outcry which professional and
clerical negroes in certain districts
are making against this decision is
nothing more than the logical result
of the deceptions practiced on them.
At the same time. it is doubtful II
they are as much affected by it gen.
orally as when they realized they were
not going to receive from government
forty acres and a mule. There is not
a single state whose legislation has
kept them from such social and polit-
ical positions as they could attain
and consequently, they have derived
no benefits from the sections repealed
Legislation, such as our constitutions
contemplate, can never prevent ho'
tells, theatres, and cars from being
run in conformity to the sentiment!
of those that patronize them. Meth
er can such legislation lessen the so
cial disabilities, that attach to the
negro; and the sooner the coloret
people find that out and cease to ex'
pect any thing of that sort from gov
ernment, the better it will be for them
Wherever the negro is worthy of asso
citation upon terms of equality witt
white men, let him assert it by equa
attainments and equally good con
duct and the contention will be ended
Until that shall be done, all othe
methods to obtain what is eovete'
will be futile.
The most sensible negroes thinl
they will be as secure under the con
stitutional amendments, which neithe
Legislators or judges can invalidate
as under laws existing at the pleasur
of political parties. They understan
perfectly, they have no political pow
er, and are unable to control as niue