The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-12
JONES DISCUSSES LYNCHING
 IN CHARGE AT HUNTSVILLE

- lips. have you any duty to perform with reference to these offenses?
 | Federal Jurfsdiction of the Ohense. | The answer involves inquiry whether | Congress has power to punish such an ! offense. and if so. has 1t exercised that
 power by appropriate legislation? The great importance of the principles in-
 standins a.ndH sho of 'hs them desnanda that the 1 of the law as well by the law itself.
 that you may the better understand how
 Prior to o the last three amendments
 States, the murder of Naples could not.
 under the circumstances, constitute an Congress has the power now to punish | the offense in any phase of 1t. that power must be found in the Thirteenth Constitution of the United States. Is | 1t contained in either or both?
 The Thirteenth Amendment provides: l. Neither slavery nor involuntary crime whereof the party shall have I been duly convicted. shali exist within the United States. or any place subject | The Fourteenth Amendment pro- vides: All persons born or natura1ized In the United States, and subject to the
 jurisdiction thereof. are citizens of the | United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or l enforce any law which shall abridgc 1 the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States: nor shall any | erty. or property. without due process | of law; nor deny to any person within
 It's Jurisdiction the equal protection of l Congress Is empowered ito enforce"
 each of these articles by appropriate legislation.
 | Rules for Construing Constitution. | The rules for construing the Consti-
 doubt. Chief Justice Marshall said, | Let the end be legitimate. let 1t be
 within the scope of the Constitution,
 and all means which are appropriate,
 and which are not prohibited. but con | sistent with the letter and spirit
 tat,oanf of the Constituting; are eonsti.
 prohbited and is wssn realy tes aM Is to effect any of the objects entrusted to the Government, to undertake here
 to inquire into the degree of its ne- circumscribes the judicial department and to tread on legislative ground.
 This court. disclaims all pretension to
 SSen Ptars a rrsg Iss vs ,,a The Com
 Court held that a clause of the Con stitution conferring a right should not be so construed as to make it shadowy or insubstantial. or leave the citizen without remedial power for it's protec- l tion, when another construction equally accordant with the words and the sense in which they are used, would enforce and protect the right granted, and that Congress is not restricted to Legislation for the execution of it's expressly granted powers, but for the protection Of rights guaranteed by the Constitu-
 tlon. may employ such means, not pro hibited, as are necessary and proper, or such as are proper to attain the end proposed. In this same case, the
 court said, the fundamental principle
 would seem to be, that when the end is required, the means are given, when the duty is enjoined, the ability to perform
 1t is contemplated to exist in the func- tionary to whom it is entrusted" It is also familiar rule in construing the Constitution and its amendments that we must look to the history of the times and the evil intended to be cured, as well as the words, to ascertain the true field of operation, and that pro- visions securing the liberty and rights of the citizen are to have a liberal construction according to the spirit, rather than a narrow construction ac- cording to the letter.
 I History of Thirteenth Amendment. The causes which begot the thir-
 teenth amendment are within the | knowledge of many of us who lived in | the times which brought 1t forth, Courts, of course. take judicial knowl- edge of them. Yet 1t will help in gath ering the true meaning, to scan some what the conditions the amendment in- 1 tended to change and control. At the | end. of long and bloody war the sword cut the bonds of the slave and made | him freeman. It was impossible for l him to leave the land where he was born and reared His future as free | man was to be worked out in the midst 4 | H. | white race doubted his capacity for freedom. It feared for the happiness and welfare of both races, if the negro | race were given the same measure of | objected to the bestowal of such legal l equality upon the negro race. The ne- gro race was ignorant, poor, and &C.,
 customed to submission. The white
 authority toward the black race.
 No thoughtful man can de-
 & thd tsre R wa. tss Ssnres ss%4eE o3 Erna Sf the ure of the effort to afford freedom,
 with it's necessary incidents to race | as distinctly marked as was the negro l race, living in the midst of another and
 dominant race" hampered by the pow | erty and ignorance which marked his
 initiation to freedom, in States whose
 Government and industrial and eco-
 homie policies had perished as the re-
 suit of strife, of which slavery was
 at least the occasion. and certainly one | of the causes, amid the inevitable | trials and friction of both races, in the adjustment of relations compelled by | the sudden change and new status, no | matter how desirous both races might | be to do justice peach other; unless
 the right of equality before the law
 were secured to the race. and its mem | bers were freed in person and prop | erty against hostile acts and discrimi- | nation, on account of race or previous | condition of servitude. What consti- 1 tuted a freeman, was measured in the | minds of American people by the civil rights which were accorded the domi- nant trace. One who was denied that
 measure ofsright was not a freeman
 in their estimation. The denial of
 such rights was regarded as q badge or | Incident of slavery. It was under | these circumstances that the thirteenth | amendment was adopted, and in the | light of history that the amendment | must be read.
 In the Civil Rights Cases, 1O9 U. S.. 20, the court held that the thirteenth | amendment Is undoubtedly self-eXe-
 cutting, without ancillary leglsIation. | and by It's own unaided force and effect
 abolished slavery and established uni
 speaking of 1t and the subsequent I; amendments. the court said, One great | purpose of these amendments was to
 raise the colored race from that condi-
 tion of inferiority and servitude in
 which most of them had previously
 stood. into perfect equality of civil ] rights with all other persons within 1 the Jurisdiction of the States" It was | further said, They are to some extent | declaratory of rights, and though in
 form prohibitions. they imply immu-