The Advocate and news., 1898-03-16

tence were declared to be citizens be-
! cause Of their being also born or nat
uralized In the United States. The
amendment then concludes: Nor
. shall any State deprive any person OF
life, liberty or property without due
process OF law; nor deny to any
. person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws" Now,
this Is all Of the fourteenth amend
ment relating to this subject. Who
are the persons who shall not, accord
Ing to these provisions, be denied
equal legal protection? Everybody
outside the asylum and of the
Federal Judicial bench knows them to
be, and only to be, natural persons.
They are those who, besides the capac-
ity to hold property and enjoy legal
protection, also have life, and can en-
Joy liberty, and that means human be-
ings. They are those spoken of in the
first sentence Of the amendment as "per-
sons born or naturalized In the United
States"
The fourteenth amendment was born
OF the war, and had for It's object the
protection OF the recently emancipated
negroes, and the white people of the
South who had remained loyal to the
Union. All the lawyers, EXCEPT those
engaged in the business Of making law
for corporations, say this. Mr.. Hare.
In his work on American Constitutional
Law, says: "The main object of this
amendment is clear 1t is to render all
persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and especially the re-
Gently emancipated negroes, citizens of
the United States and of the State
wherein they reside, and also to afford
the possessors Of such citizenship an
enectual guarantee against arbitrary or
unequal legislation on the part Of the
several States" The amendment was
adopted in 1868, and nobody dreamed
that 1t had any application to corpora
tions until an insurance company down
In Louisiana tried to crawl under it's
protection and cover upon the ground
that 1t was a person" Mr.. Justice
Woods, of the United States Circuit
court, who afterwards went upon the
United States Supreme bench, spurned
1t away, saying:
only natural persons can be deprived Of life or lib
eryi 80 that IL s clear that artificial DersOng are ex
clnaed from the provisions Of the first two clauses
JUST quoted IL we adopt the construction claimed
Dy complainants, we must hold that the word "Der-
son. where 1t occurs the third time in this section
mas wider and more comprehensive meaning than
In the other clauses OF the section where Il 0ccnrs
This would be q construction for which we And no
warrant In the rules Of Interpretation The plain and
eVuent meaning OK the section is, that the persons
70 whom the equal protection Of the law Is secured
are persons born or naturaEed endowed with life
ana liberty, and consequently natural and not artl-
cial persons.
The corporation lawyers will find this
case reported In Woods U. s. Circuit
Report, page IS. That decision was
made in 1870, and it remained the un-
questioned law followed by California,
Rhode Island and other States, and by
the Federal courts until 1882, when
Judge Field and another Federal JUS
tlce or the Peace named Sawyer decided
the other way, and since then when
ever corporation starts out to commit
highway robbery, pick a mans pocket
or loot public treasury 1t disguises IT.
self as a person" and goes out on It's
mission OF plumber Nobody but slave
or knave will yield assent to the hid
eous distortion of meaning which Judge
Harlan gives to the word person" as
used in the fourteenth amendment, and
upon which he bottoms his famous de-
cision, and which shows to what depths
OF iniquity the Supreme court of the
United States has descended,
-
/ desire to quote some of the opin-
IONS Of the Supreme court Of the United
States, before 1t went into partnership
with Morgan, Vanderbilt, Gould & Co.,
In opposition to the opinion they hold
in tn Nebraska rate case.
In 1880 Chief Justice John Marshall,
delivering the opinion of the Supreme
court OF the United States in Provi-
dence Bank vs.. Billings & Pitman, said:
The power OF legislation operates on all persons
and property belonging 70 the body polite This Is
an original principle, which has its foundation In So
eletY itaAf. u 81 ArAnLAd bY ALL for the hanaat OF