Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1928-03-10

ity". .. "a
: And again.
eff l am capable of understanding
the spirit of the Declaration Of In
dependence or realizing the soul OF
the Constitution, this Government
was established to insure to the
. citizen the exercise Of his natural
liberties as an Individual and TO
preserve to him inviolate the enjoy
ment of all his faculties Of brain and
heart and soul"
Did Senator Fed have the Ne
gro in mind when he uttered these
truths or was he living in the past
before the enactment Of the War
Amendments to the Constitution of
the United States? He said further:
Government was therefore or
dained to prevent an interference
with these sacred privileges. II was
not designed that we should here on
this free soil reincarnate the aboln-
Unable doctrine OF tyrants thai the
great masses Of men should be
guided and controlled by rulers.
Man was to be no longer ordered to
take a certain course through life.
Masters were no longer to forge
letters binding either the body CT
the brain. On the contrary, 1t was
asserted that man was capable OF
self-government. He was to proceed
upon his own initiative; he was to
suffer for his own folly. He was
privileged to pursue the highway 81
wisdom or walk path which the
majcrGy regarded as foolish, He
was to be the master Of his fate;
the captain of his soul. -
Accordingly no man, whether q
private citizen or the holder Of an
Office, was permitted to interfere
with the citizen in the exercise Of
his natural and inalienable rights.
AT that point ihe law stepped in
with irs thou shalt not, but up to
that point fhe law was to be silent.
@
This language was worthy Of a
William Lloyd Garrison. a Charles
Sumner or a Frederick Douglass,
but coming from Senator James A.
Reed, to an observer of his action
it was like sounding brass and
tinkling cymbals". 1t made it liter
ally impossible on the part of the
Negro citizens of this country to
accept them at their face value, for
it was known to contain, in the
language of the diplomat, certain
well-defined reservations, which
covered specifically the case of the
"brother-in-black".
Still, it sounds mighty good.
Negroes can regard with smiles of
DOWNRIGHT satisfac% son the descrip-
ton of present day conditions,
showing as they do that retribution
is at hand and that rights and
privileges taken from the Negro in
the past are now being denied the
Negro and the, white man in the
present. The annoyances, to which
the white man is now being SUBJ
jected are closely akin to those at
one time and even now visited upon
the black one. This is how this
gifted speaker describes them. He
said,-
Twenty thousand Federal sta
tutes, 100000 State laws, uncounted
ordinances of cities plus myriads OF
regulations pronounced by hundreds
of boards and bureaus seek to impose
upon the living the will the whim
and the caprice Of those who are
armed with little brief authority.
"The land is overrun with agents,
spies and informers, all constituting
an immense and in many instances
an obnoxious un-American constab-
ulary.
Government has been centralized
until the States have been shorn or
many of their just rights and obi
cations, whilst there is a growing
and shameful disposition on the part
of State authorities to voluntarily
the attributes of State SOW
ere gnty without which liberty is
and from which corrup'
t on invariably springs.
1''I repeat that the business of free
Ia IN nrotect the liberty