Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-01-24

II
which would have power to license,
was cast in such form as also to auth
orize direct prohibition, or prohibition
by arbitrary and excessive taxation,
.nd therefore lost the fsvorof many.
| We have to deal, however. with the
constitution, as il is, but with the ad-
vantage of knowing, from the lsbors
of.the Supreme Court, that the act of
1888. commonly known as the Scott
law, is not In conflict with the inhibi-
ton against the passage Of laws to
license this traffic Although this act
may not in the legal or technical
sense, establish license system, it has
some of its advantages, produces some
OF its effects, and in practice largely
partakes OF the nature o. license law.
While it does not in direct terms pro-
teet the dealer against interference du-
ring the year for which he is com
PEELED to pay tax, it indirectly inA
sures his protection in the undlsturbed
continuance OF his traffic, by the con-
tributions it exacts towards the dim
mutton of general taxation, and by
the general interest it thus creates
against prohibition or the destruction
of the trade. A community to whose
expenses this traffic largely contributes
and whose taxes it diminishes will not
oe inimical to its continuance upon
economic or financial grounds at least.
do not believe this law ought to be
repealed. but that the graduation of
its taxation and the withdrawal Of the
power of municipal prohibition, would
convert it into as just and efficient q
license law as is consistent with the
constitutional inhibition, without at
all Withdrawing the force of any of
the reasoning upon which the majority
of the Supreme Court sustained its
constitutionality.
Nineteen years have elapsed since
the close of the civil war dismissed
from arms and relegated to the ways
and works Of peace more than mil.
lion com batants. Time has effaced
most of the visible ravages of war, and
nearly, if not quite all the animosities
engendered by the conflict survive. if
at all, as mere political agencies, mis-
chievous as far as they are active, but
constantly losing force. Even the
vast debt will probably be paid during
this generation, and with its payment
the burthens of federal taxation may
be so diminished as to afford an op.
portunlty for commercial freedom, an
opportunity such as the country has
not enjoyed since the administration
of Andrew Jackson.
The great monument of victory, the
enduring assurance that the blood was
not spilled, the treasure not spent in
vain, is the restoration Of the Union
upon the basis of the abolition af slav-
cry and the enffanchisement of the
slave. Color has taken its place, in
law, and with reference to legal rights
under the American system, by the
side Of inherited wealth, place of birth
and other fortuitous circumstances of
life, as having no effect in determining
condition. That is left to conduct the
result of character, ana white and black
are both ensured equal rights and
equal opportunity in the presence of
the law The habits and usages and
prejudices of slavery law will doubt
less long survive, but the day will
surely come, Cad grant it may be soon,
when, even without legal intervention,
no citizen in any State will be treated
as an inferiot, or denied the full equal
measure of equal rights accorded to
others, merely because he chanced to
inherit black skin.
These prejudices, which exist as
fully at the North as the South, may
hereafter give rise { do not think they
ave done SO yeti TO the necessity to
mend the criminal laws Of our State.
10 legislation is needed to establish
he principal of the absolute equality
f rights between black and white or
furnish civil actions for redress or
nvasions. Those are accomplished by
he federal constitution and the COM
non law as it prevails in Ohio. But
portion of the civil rights legislation
If Congress has been recently declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
Iof the United States, and inasmuch as
the duty Of protection against Unequal
ity and discrimination on account of
color is thus devolved upon. the States.
it may bee ,me necessary for Ohio to
act. This decision licenses no act of
of wrong or oppression. It merely
transfers the theater Of redress from
the Federal to the more numerous and
accessible State legislatures and courts.
The war was rightly waged to van
quish the armed assertion of superior
sovereignty of the States, made in de-
fiance Of the express provision that
"the Constitution and the laws of the
United States made in pursuance there
of shall be the supreme law Of the
land, anything in the constitution or
laws of any State to the contrary,
notwithstanding" But the habitual
use Of and submission to war powers
has left the minds of many good clti-
zens in apt condition to forget even
until now that the constitution like.
| IL i