2341 lines
110 KiB
Plaintext
2341 lines
110 KiB
Plaintext
36 page printout
|
||
|
||
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
||
|
||
Contents of this file page
|
||
|
||
Introduction by the Hon. Frederick Douglass 1
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS. 2
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
This file, its printout, or copies of either
|
||
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
|
||
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
On the 22d of October, 1883, a vast number of citizens met at
|
||
Lincoln Hall, Washington, D.C., to give expression to their views
|
||
concerning the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States,
|
||
in which it is held that the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional.
|
||
|
||
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll was one of the speakers.
|
||
|
||
The Hon. Frederick Douglass introduced him as follows:
|
||
|
||
Abou Ben Adhem -- (may his tribe increase!)
|
||
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
|
||
And saw within the moonlight of his room,
|
||
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
|
||
An angel writing in a book of gold:
|
||
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold;
|
||
And to the presence in the room he said,
|
||
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,
|
||
And, with a look made all of sweet accord,
|
||
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
|
||
"And is mine one?" asked Abou. "Nay, not so,"
|
||
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
|
||
But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
|
||
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."
|
||
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
|
||
It came again, with a great wakening light,
|
||
And showed the names whom love of God had blest;
|
||
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
|
||
|
||
I have the honor to introduce Robert G. Ingersoll.
|
||
|
||
MR. INGERSOLL'S SPEECH.
|
||
|
||
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
|
||
|
||
We have met for the purpose of saying a few words about the
|
||
recent decision of the Supreme Court, in which that tribunal has
|
||
held the first and second sections of the Civil Rights Act to be
|
||
unconstitutional; and so held in spite of the fact that for years
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
1
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
the people of the North and South have, with singular unanimity,
|
||
supposed the Act to be constitutional -- supposed that it was
|
||
upheld by the 13th and 14th Amendments, -- and so supposed because
|
||
they knew with certainty the intention of the framers of the
|
||
amendments. They knew this intention, because they knew what the
|
||
enemies of the amendments and the enemies of the Civil Rights Act
|
||
claimed was the intention. And they also knew what the friends of
|
||
the amendments and the law admitted the intention to be. The
|
||
prejudices born of ignorance and of slavery had died or fallen
|
||
asleep, and even the enemies of the amendments and the law had
|
||
accepted the situation.
|
||
|
||
But I shall speak of the decision as I feel, and in the same
|
||
manner as I should speak even in the presence of the Court. You
|
||
must remember that I am not attacking persons, but opinions -- not
|
||
motives, but reasons -- not judges, but decisions.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court has decided:
|
||
|
||
1. That the first and second sections of the Civil Rights Act
|
||
of March 1, 1875, are unconstitutional, as applied to the States --
|
||
not being authorized by the 13th and 14th Amendments.
|
||
|
||
2. That the 14th Amendment is prohibitory upon the States
|
||
only, and the legislation forbidden to be adopted by Congress for
|
||
enforcing it, is not "direct" legislation, but "corrective," --
|
||
such as may be necessary or proper for counteracting and
|
||
restraining the effect of laws or acts passed or done by the
|
||
several States.
|
||
|
||
3. That the 13th Amendment relates only to slavery and
|
||
involuntary servitude, which it abolishes.
|
||
|
||
4. That the 13th Amendment establishes universal freedom in
|
||
the United States.
|
||
|
||
5. That Congress may probably pass laws directly enforcing its
|
||
provisions.
|
||
|
||
6. That such legislative power in Congress extends only to the
|
||
subject of slavery, and its incidents.
|
||
|
||
7. That the denial of equal accommodations in inns, public
|
||
conveyances and places of public amusement, imposes no badge of
|
||
slavery or involuntary servitude upon the party, but at most
|
||
infringes rights which are protected from State aggression by the
|
||
14th Amendment.
|
||
|
||
8. The Court is uncertain whether the accommodations and
|
||
privileges sought to be protected by the first and second sections
|
||
of the Civil Rights Act are or are not rights constitutionally
|
||
demandable, -- and if they are, in what form they are to be
|
||
protected.
|
||
|
||
9. Neither does the Court decide whether the law, as it
|
||
stands, is operative in the Territories and the District of
|
||
Columbia.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
2
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
10. Neither does the Court decide whether Congress, under the
|
||
commercial power, may or may not pass a law securing to all persons
|
||
equal accommodations on lines of public conveyance between two or
|
||
more States.
|
||
|
||
11. The Court also holds, in the present case, that until some
|
||
State law has been passed, or some State action through its
|
||
officers or agents has been taken adverse to the rights of citizens
|
||
sought to be protected by the 14th Amendment, no legislation of the
|
||
United States under said amendment, or any proceeding under such
|
||
legislation, can be called into activity, for the reason that the
|
||
prohibitions of the amendment are against State laws and acts done
|
||
under State authority. The essence of said decision being, that the
|
||
managers and owners of inns, railways, and all public conveyances,
|
||
of theaters and all places of public amusement, may discriminate on
|
||
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and
|
||
that the citizen so discriminated against, is without redress.
|
||
|
||
This decision takes from seven millions of people the shield
|
||
of the Constitution. It leaves the best of the colored race at the
|
||
mercy of the meanest of the white. It feeds fat the ancient grudge
|
||
that vicious ignorance bears toward race and color. It will be
|
||
approved and quoted by hundreds of thousands of unjust men. The
|
||
masked wretches who, in the darkness of night, drag the poor negro
|
||
from his cabin, and lacerate with whip and thong his quivering
|
||
flesh, will, with bloody hands, applaud the Supreme Court. The men
|
||
who, by mob violence, prevent the negro from depositing his ballot
|
||
-- who with gun and revolver drive him from the polls, and those
|
||
who insult with vile and vulgar words the inoffensive colored girl,
|
||
will welcome this decision with hyena joy. The basest will rejoice
|
||
-- the noblest will mourn.
|
||
|
||
But even in the presence of this decision, we must remember
|
||
that it is one of the necessities of government that there should
|
||
be a court of last resort; and while all courts will more or less
|
||
fail to do justice, still, the wit of man has, as yet, devised no
|
||
better way. Even after reading this decision, we must take it for
|
||
granted that the judges of the Supreme Court arrived at their
|
||
conclusions honestly and in accordance with the best light they
|
||
had. While they had the right to render the decision, every citizen
|
||
has the right to give his opinion as to whether that decision is
|
||
good or bad. Knowing that they are liable to be mistaken, and
|
||
honestly mistaken, we should always be charitable enough to admit
|
||
that others may be mistaken; and we may also take another step, and
|
||
admit that we may be mistaken about their being mistaken. We must
|
||
remember, too, that we have to make judges out of men, and that by
|
||
being made judges their prejudices are not diminished and their
|
||
intelligence is not increased. No matter whether a man wears a
|
||
crown or a robe or a rag. Under the emblem of power and the emblem
|
||
of poverty, the man alike resides. The real thing is the man -- the
|
||
distinction often exists only in the clothes. Take away the crown
|
||
-- there is only a man. Remove the robe -- there remains a man.
|
||
Take away the rag, and we find at least a man.
|
||
|
||
There was a time in this country when all bowed to a decision
|
||
of the Supreme Court. It was unquestioned. It was regarded as "a
|
||
voice from on high." The people heard and they obeyed. The Dred
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
3
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Scott decision destroyed that illusion forever. From that day to
|
||
this the people have claimed the privilege of putting the decisions
|
||
of the Supreme Court in the crucible of reason. These decisions are
|
||
no longer exempt from honest criticism. While the decision remains,
|
||
it is the law. No matter how absurd, no matter how erroneous, no
|
||
matter how contrary to reason and justice, it remains the law. It
|
||
must be overturned either by the Court itself (and the Court has
|
||
overturned hundreds of its own decisions), or by legislative
|
||
action, or by an amendment to the Constitution. We do not appeal to
|
||
armed revolution. Our Government is so framed that it provides for
|
||
what may be called perpetual peaceful revolution. For the redress
|
||
of any grievance, for the purpose of righting any wrong, there is
|
||
the perpetual remedy of an appeal to the people.
|
||
|
||
We must remember, too, that judges keep their backs to the
|
||
dawn. They find whit has been, what is, but not what ought to be.
|
||
They are tied and shackled by precedent, fettered by old decisions,
|
||
and by the desire to be consistent, even in mistakes. They pass
|
||
upon the acts and words of others, and like other people, they are
|
||
liable to make mistakes. In the olden time we took what the doctors
|
||
gave us, we believed what the preachers said; and accepted, without
|
||
question, the judgments of the highest court. Now it is different.
|
||
We ask the doctor what the medicine is, and what effect he expects
|
||
it to produce. We cross-examine the minister, and we criticize the
|
||
decision of the Chief-justice. We do this, because we have found
|
||
that some doctors do not kill, that some ministers are quite
|
||
reasonable, and that some judges know something about law. In this
|
||
country, the people are the sovereigns. All officers -- including
|
||
judges -- are simply their servants, and the sovereign has always
|
||
the right to give his opinion as to the action of his agent, The
|
||
sovereignty of the people is the rock upon which rests the right of
|
||
speech and the freedom of the press.
|
||
|
||
Unfortunately for us, our fathers adopted the common law of
|
||
England -- a law poisoned by kingly prerogative -- by every form of
|
||
oppression, by the spirit of caste, and permeated, saturated, with
|
||
the political heresy that the people received their rights,
|
||
privileges and immunities from the crown. The thirteen original
|
||
colonies received their laws, their forms, their ideas of justice,
|
||
from the old world. All the judicial, legislative, and executive
|
||
springs and sources had been touched and tainted.
|
||
|
||
In the struggle with England, our fathers justified their
|
||
rebellion by declaring that Nature had clothed all men with the
|
||
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The moment
|
||
success crowned their efforts, they changed their noble declaration
|
||
of equal rights for all, and basely interpolated the word "white."
|
||
They adopted a Constitution that denied the Declaration of
|
||
Independence -- a Constitution that recognized and upheld slavery,
|
||
protected the slave-trade, legalized piracy upon the high seas that
|
||
demoralized, degraded, and debauched the nation, and that at last
|
||
reddened with brave blood the fields of the Republic.
|
||
|
||
Our fathers planted the seeds of injustice, and we gathered
|
||
the harvest. In the blood and flame of civil war, we retraced our
|
||
fathers' steps. In the stress of war, we implored the aid of
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
4
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Liberty, and asked once more for the protection of justice. We
|
||
civilized the Constitution of our fathers. We adopted three
|
||
Amendments -- the 13th, 14th and 15th -- the Trinity of Liberty.
|
||
|
||
Let us examine these amendments:
|
||
|
||
"Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, except as a
|
||
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
|
||
convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place
|
||
subject to their jurisdiction.
|
||
|
||
"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
|
||
appropriate legislation."
|
||
|
||
Before the adoption of this amendment, the Constitution had
|
||
always been construed to be the perfect shield of slavery. In order
|
||
that slavery might be protected, the slave States were considered
|
||
as sovereign. Freedom was regarded as a local prejudice, slavery as
|
||
the ward of the Nation, the jewel of the Constitution. For three-
|
||
quarters of a century, the Supreme Court of the United States
|
||
exhausted judicial ingenuity in guarding, protecting and fostering
|
||
that infamous institution. For the purpose of preserving that
|
||
infinite outrage, words and phrases were warped, and stretched, and
|
||
tortured, and thumbscrewed, and racked. Slavery was the one sacred
|
||
thing, and the Supreme Court was its constitutional guardian.
|
||
|
||
To show the faithfulness of that tribunal, I call your
|
||
attention to the 3d clause of the 2d section of the 4th article of
|
||
the Constitution:
|
||
|
||
No person held to service or labor in any State under the laws
|
||
thereof, escaping to another, shall, in consequence of any law or
|
||
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but
|
||
shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such
|
||
service or labor may be due."
|
||
|
||
The framers of the Constitution were ashamed to use the word
|
||
"slave," and thereupon they said "person." They were ashamed to use
|
||
the word "slavery," and they evaded it by saying. "held to service
|
||
or labor." They were ashamed to put in the word "master," so they
|
||
called him "the party to whom service or labor may be due."
|
||
|
||
How can a slave owe service? How can a slave owe labor? How
|
||
could a slave make a contract? How could the master have a legal
|
||
claim against a slave? And yet, the Supreme Court of the United
|
||
States found no difficulty in upholding the Fugitive Slave Law by
|
||
virtue of that clause. There were hundreds of decisions declaring
|
||
that Congress had power to pass laws to carry that clause into
|
||
effect, and it was carried into effect.
|
||
|
||
You will observe the wording of this clause:
|
||
|
||
"No person held to service or labor in any State
|
||
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in
|
||
consequence of any law or regulation therein, be
|
||
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be
|
||
delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such
|
||
service or labor may be due."
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
5
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
To whom was this clause directed? To individuals or to States?
|
||
It expressly provides that the "person" held to service or labor
|
||
shall not be discharged from such service or labor in consequence
|
||
of any law or regulation in the "State" to which he has fled. Did
|
||
that law apply to States, or to individuals?
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court held that it applied to individuals as well
|
||
as to States. Any "person," in any State, interfering with the
|
||
master who was endeavoring to steal the person he called his slave,
|
||
was liable to indictment, and hundreds and thousands were indicted,
|
||
and hundreds languished in prisons because they were noble enough
|
||
to hold in infinite contempt such infamous laws and such infamous
|
||
decisions. The best men in the United States -- the noblest spirits
|
||
under the flag -- were imprisoned because they were charitable,
|
||
because they were just, because they showed the hunted slave the
|
||
path to freedom, and taught him where to find amid the glittering
|
||
host of heaven the blessed Northern Star.
|
||
|
||
Every fugitive slave carried that clause with him when he
|
||
entered a free State; carried it into every hiding place; and every
|
||
Northern man was bound, by virtue of that clause, to act as the spy
|
||
and hound of slavery. The Supreme Court, with infinite ease, made
|
||
a club of that clause with which to strike down the liberty of the
|
||
fugitive and the manhood of the North.
|
||
|
||
In the Dred Scott decision it was solemnly decided that a man
|
||
of African descent, whether a slave or not, was not, and could not
|
||
be, a citizen of a State or of the United States. The Supreme Court
|
||
held on the even tenor of its way, and in the Rebellion that
|
||
tribunal was about the last fort to surrender.
|
||
|
||
The moment the 13th Amendment was adopted, the slaves became
|
||
freemen. The distinction between "white" and "colored" vanished.
|
||
The negroes became as though they had never been slaves -- as
|
||
though they had always been free -- as though they had been white.
|
||
They became citizens -- they became a part of "the people," and
|
||
"the people" constituted the State, and it was the State thus
|
||
constituted that was entitled to the constitutional guarantee of a
|
||
republican government.
|
||
|
||
These freed men became citizens -- became a part of the State
|
||
in which they lived.
|
||
|
||
The highest and noblest definition of a State, in our Reports,
|
||
was given by justice Wilson, in the case of Chisholm, &c. vs.
|
||
Georgia;
|
||
|
||
"By a State, I mean a complete body of free persons,
|
||
united for their common benefit, to enjoy peaceably what is
|
||
their own, and to do justice to others."
|
||
|
||
Chief justice Chase declared that:
|
||
|
||
"The people, in whatever territory dwelling, whether
|
||
temporarily or permanently, or whether organized under regular
|
||
government, or united by less definite relations, constitute
|
||
the State."
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
6
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Now, if the people, the moment the 13th Amendment was adopted
|
||
were all free, and if these people constituted the State; if, under
|
||
the Constitution of the United States, every State is guaranteed a
|
||
republican government, then it is the duty of the General
|
||
Government to see to it that every State has such a government. If
|
||
distinctions are made between free men on account of race or color,
|
||
the government is not republican. The manner in which this
|
||
guarantee of a republican form of government is to be enforced or
|
||
made good, must be left to the wisdom and discretion of Congress.
|
||
|
||
The 13th Amendment not only destroyed, but it built. It
|
||
destroyed the slave-pen, and on its site erected the temple of
|
||
Liberty. It did not simply free slaves -- it made citizens. It
|
||
repealed every statute that upheld slavery. It erased from every
|
||
Report every decision against freedom. It took the word "white"
|
||
from every law, and blotted from the Constitution all clauses
|
||
acknowledging property in man.
|
||
|
||
If, then, all the people in each State, were, by virtue of the
|
||
13th Amendment, free, what right had a majority to enslave a
|
||
minority? What right had a majority to make any distinctions
|
||
between freemen? What right had a majority to take from a minority
|
||
any privilege, or any immunity, to which they were entitled as free
|
||
men? What right had the majority to make that unequal which the
|
||
Constitution made equal?
|
||
|
||
Not satisfied with saying that slavery should not exist, we
|
||
find in the amendment the words "nor involuntary servitude." This
|
||
was intended to destroy every mark and badge of legal inferiority.
|
||
|
||
justice Field upon this very question, says:
|
||
|
||
"It is, however, clear that the words 'involuntary
|
||
servitude' include something more than slavery, in the strict
|
||
sense of the term. They include also serfage, vassalage,
|
||
villanage, peonage, and all other forms of compulsory service
|
||
for the mere benefit or pleasure of others. Nor is this the
|
||
full import of the term. The abolition of slavery and
|
||
involuntary servitude was intended to make every one born in
|
||
this country a free man, and as such to give him the right to
|
||
pursue the ordinary avocations of life without other restraint
|
||
than such as affects all others, and to enjoy equally with
|
||
them the fruits of his labor. A person allowed to pursue only
|
||
one trade or calling, and only in one locality of the country,
|
||
would not be, in the strict sense of the term, in a condition
|
||
of slavery, but probably no one would deny that he would be in
|
||
a condition of servitude. He certainly would not possess the
|
||
liberties, or enjoy the privileges of a freeman."
|
||
|
||
Justice Field also quotes with approval the language of the
|
||
counsel for the plaintiffs in the case:
|
||
|
||
"Whenever a law of a State, or a law of the United
|
||
States, makes a discrimination between classes of persons
|
||
which deprives the one class of their freedom or their
|
||
property, or which makes a caste of them, to subserve the
|
||
power, pride, avarice, vanity or vengeance of others -- there
|
||
involuntary servitude exists within the meaning of the 13th
|
||
Amendment."
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
7
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
To show that the framers of the 13th Amendment intended to
|
||
blot out every form of slavery and servitude, I call attention to
|
||
the Civil Rights Act, approved April 9, 1866, which provided, among
|
||
other things, that:
|
||
|
||
All persons born in the United States, and not subject to
|
||
any foreign power -- excluding Indians not taxed -- are
|
||
citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every
|
||
race and color, without regard to any previous condition of
|
||
slavery or involuntary servitude, are entitled to the full and
|
||
equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of
|
||
person and property enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be
|
||
subject to like punishments, pains and penalties -- and to
|
||
none other -- any law, statute, ordinance, regulation or
|
||
custom to the contrary notwithstanding; and they shall have
|
||
the same rights in every State and Territory of the United
|
||
States as white persons."
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court, in The Slaughter-House Cases, (16 Wallace,
|
||
69) has said that the word servitude has a larger meaning than the
|
||
word slavery. "The word 'servitude' implies subjection to the will
|
||
of another contrary to the common right." A man is in a state of
|
||
involuntary servitude when he is forced to do, or prevented from
|
||
doing a thing, not by the law of the State, but by the simple will
|
||
of another. He who enjoys less than the common rights of a citizen,
|
||
he who can be forced from the public highway at the will of
|
||
another, who can be denied entrance to the cars of a common
|
||
carrier, is in a state of servitude.
|
||
|
||
The 13th Amendment did away with slavery not only, and with
|
||
involuntary servitude, but with every badge and brand and stain and
|
||
mark of slavery. It abolished forever distinctions on account of
|
||
race and color.
|
||
|
||
In the language of the Supreme Court:
|
||
|
||
"It was the obvious purpose of the 13th Amendment to
|
||
forbid all shades and conditions of African slavery."
|
||
|
||
And to that I add, it was the obvious purpose of that
|
||
amendment to forbid all shades and conditions of slavery, no matter
|
||
of what sort or kind -- all marks of legal inferiority. Each
|
||
citizen was to be absolutely free. All his rights complete, whole,
|
||
unmaimed and unabridged.
|
||
|
||
From the moment of the adoption of that amendment, the law
|
||
became color-blind. All distinctions on account of complexion
|
||
vanished. It took the whip from the hand of the white man, and put
|
||
the nation's flag above the negro's hut. It gave horizon, scope and
|
||
dome to the lowest life. It stretched a sky studded with stars of
|
||
hope above the humblest head.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court has admitted, in the very case we are now
|
||
discussing, that:
|
||
|
||
"Under the 13th Amendment the legislation" -- meaning the
|
||
legislation of Congress -- "so far as necessary or proper to
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
8
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
eradicate all forms and incidents of slavery and involuntary
|
||
servitude, may be direct and primary, operating upon the acts
|
||
of individuals, whether sanctioned by State legislation or
|
||
not."
|
||
|
||
Here we have the authority for dealing with individuals.
|
||
|
||
The only question then remaining is, whether an individual,
|
||
being the keeper of a public inn, or the agent of a railway
|
||
corporation, created by a State, can be held responsible in a
|
||
Federal Court for discriminating against a citizen of the United
|
||
States on account of race, color, or previous condition of
|
||
servitude. If such discrimination is a badge of slavery, or places
|
||
the party discriminated against in a condition of involuntary
|
||
servitude, then the Civil Rights Act may be upheld by the 13th
|
||
Amendment.
|
||
|
||
In The United States vs. Harris, 106 U.S., 640, the Supreme
|
||
Court says:
|
||
|
||
"It is clear that the 13th Amendment, besides abolishing
|
||
forever slavery and involuntary servitude within the United
|
||
States, gives power to Congress to protect all citizens from
|
||
being in any way subjected to slavery or involuntary
|
||
servitude, except for the punishment of crime, and in the
|
||
enjoyment of that freedom which it was the object of the
|
||
amendment to secure."
|
||
|
||
This declaration covers the entire case.
|
||
|
||
I agree with justice Field:
|
||
|
||
"The 13th Amendment is not confined to African slavery.
|
||
It is general and universal in its application -- prohibiting
|
||
the slavery of white men as well as black men, and not
|
||
prohibiting mere slavery in the strict sense of the term, but
|
||
involuntary servitude in every form." 16 Wallace, 90.
|
||
|
||
The 13th Amendment declares that neither slavery nor
|
||
involuntary servitude shall exist. Who must see to it that this
|
||
declaration is carried out? There can be but one answer. It is the
|
||
duty of Congress.
|
||
|
||
At last the question narrows itself to this: Is a citizen of
|
||
the United States, when denied admission to public inns, railway
|
||
cars and theaters, on account of his race or color, in a condition
|
||
of involuntary servitude? If he is, then he is under the immediate
|
||
protection of the General Government, by virtue of the 13th
|
||
Amendment; and the Civil Rights Act is clearly constitutional.
|
||
|
||
If excluded from one inn, he may be from all; if from one car,
|
||
why not from all? The man who depends for the preservation of his
|
||
privileges upon a conductor, instead of the Constitution, is in a
|
||
condition of involuntary servitude. He who depends for his rights
|
||
-- not upon the laws of the land, but upon a landlord, is in a
|
||
condition of involuntary servitude.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
9
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
The framers of the 13th Amendment knew that the negro would be
|
||
persecuted on account of his race and color -- knew that many of
|
||
the States could not be trusted to protect the rights of the
|
||
colored man; and for that reason, the General Government was
|
||
clothed with power to protect the colored people from all forms of
|
||
slavery and involuntary servitude.
|
||
|
||
Of what use are the declarations in the Constitution that
|
||
slavery and involuntary servitude shall not exist, and that all
|
||
persons born or naturalized in the United States shall be citizens
|
||
-- not only of the United States, but of the States in which they
|
||
reside -- if, behind these declarations, there is no power to act
|
||
-- no duty for the General Government to discharge?
|
||
|
||
Notwithstanding the 13th Amendment had been adopted --
|
||
notwithstanding slavery and involuntary servitude had been legally
|
||
destroyed -- it was found that the negro was still the helpless
|
||
victim of the white man. Another amendment was needed; and all the
|
||
justices of the Supreme Court have told us why the 14th Amendment
|
||
was adopted. justice Miller, speaking for the entire court, tells
|
||
us that:
|
||
|
||
"In the struggle of the civil war, slavery perished, and
|
||
perished as a necessity of the bitterness and force of the
|
||
conflict."
|
||
|
||
That:
|
||
|
||
"When the armies of freedom found themselves on the soil
|
||
of slavery, they could do nothing else than free the victims
|
||
whose enforced servitude was the foundation of the war."
|
||
|
||
He also admits that:
|
||
|
||
"When hard pressed in the contest, the colored men (for
|
||
they proved themselves men in that terrible crisis) offered
|
||
their services, and were accepted, by thousands, to aid in
|
||
suppressing the unlawful rebellion."
|
||
|
||
He also informs us that;
|
||
|
||
Notwithstanding the fact that the Southern States had
|
||
formerly recognized the abolition of slavery, the condition of
|
||
the slave, without further protection of the Federal
|
||
Government, was almost as bad as it had been before."
|
||
|
||
And he declares that:
|
||
|
||
"The Southern States imposed upon the colored race
|
||
onerous disabilities and burdens -- curtailed their rights in
|
||
the pursuit of liberty and property, to such an extent that
|
||
their freedom was of little value, while the colored people
|
||
had lost the protection which they had received from their
|
||
former owners from motives of interest."
|
||
|
||
And that:
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
10
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
"The colored people in some States were forbidden to
|
||
appear in the towns in any other character than that of menial
|
||
servants -- that they were required to reside on the soil
|
||
without the right to purchase or own it -- that they were
|
||
excluded from many occupations of gain and profit -- that they
|
||
were not permitted to give testimony in the courts where white
|
||
men were on trial -- and it was said that their lives were at
|
||
the mercy of bad men, either because laws for their protection
|
||
were insufficient, or were not enforced."
|
||
|
||
We are informed by the Supreme Court that, "under these
|
||
circumstances," the proposition for the 14th Amendment was passed
|
||
through Congress, and that Congress declined to treat as restored
|
||
to full participation in the Government of the Union, the States
|
||
which had been in insurrection, until they ratified that article by
|
||
a formal vote of their legislative bodies.
|
||
|
||
Thus it will be seen that the rebel States were restored to
|
||
the Union by adopting the 14th Amendment. In order to become equal
|
||
members of the Federal Union, these States solemnly agreed to carry
|
||
out the provisions of that amendment.
|
||
|
||
The 14th Amendment provides that:
|
||
|
||
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
|
||
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
|
||
United States, and of the State wherein they reside."
|
||
|
||
That is affirmative in its character. That affirmation imposes
|
||
the obligation upon the General Government to protect its citizens
|
||
everywhere. That affirmation clothes the Federal Government with
|
||
power to protect its citizens. Under that clause, the Federal arm
|
||
can reach to the boundary of the Republic, for the purpose of
|
||
protecting the weakest citizen from the tyranny of citizens or
|
||
States. That clause is a contract between the Government and every
|
||
man -- a contract wherein the citizen promises allegiance, and the
|
||
nation promises protection.
|
||
|
||
By this clause, the Federal Government adopted all the
|
||
citizens of all the States and Territories, including the District
|
||
of Columbia, and placed them under the shield of the Constitution
|
||
-- made each one a ward of the Republic.
|
||
|
||
Under this contract, the Government is under direct obligation
|
||
to the citizen. The Government cannot shirk its responsibility by
|
||
leaving a citizen to be protected in his rights, as a citizen of
|
||
the United States, by a State. The obligation of protection is
|
||
direct. The obligation on the part of the citizen to the Government
|
||
is direct. The citizen cannot be untrue to the Government because
|
||
his State is. The action of the State under the 14th Amendment is
|
||
no excuse for the citizen. He must be true to the Government. In
|
||
war, the Government has a right to his service. In peace, he has
|
||
the right to be protected.
|
||
|
||
if the citizen must depend upon the State, then he owes the
|
||
first allegiance to that government or power that is under
|
||
obligation to protect him. Then, if a State secedes from the Union,
|
||
the citizen should go with the State -- should go with the power
|
||
that protects.
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
11
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
That is not my doctrine. My doctrine is this: The first duty
|
||
of the General Government is to protect each citizen. The first
|
||
duty of each citizen is to be true -- not to his State, but to the
|
||
Republic.
|
||
|
||
This clause of the 14th Amendment made us all citizens of the
|
||
United States -- all children of the Republic. Under this decision,
|
||
the Republic refuses to acknowledge her children. Under this
|
||
decision of the Supreme Court, they are left upon the doorsteps of
|
||
the States. Citizens are changed to foundlings.
|
||
|
||
If the 14th Amendment created citizens of the United States,
|
||
the power that created must define the rights of the citizens thus
|
||
created, and must provide a remedy where such rights an infringed.
|
||
The Federal Government speaks through its representatives --
|
||
through Congress; and Congress, by the Civil Rights Act, defined
|
||
some of the rights, privileges and immunities of a citizen of the
|
||
United States -- and Congress provided a remedy when such rights
|
||
and privileges were invaded, and gave jurisdiction to the Federal
|
||
courts.
|
||
|
||
No State, or the department of any State, can authoritatively
|
||
define the rights, privileges and immunities of a citizen of the
|
||
United States. These rights and immunities must be defined by the
|
||
United States, and when so defined, they cannot be abridged by
|
||
State authority.
|
||
|
||
In the case of Bartemeyer vs. Iowa, 18 Wall., p. 140, Justice
|
||
Field, in a concurring opinion, speaking of the 14th Amendment,
|
||
says:
|
||
|
||
"It grew out of the feeling that a nation which had been
|
||
maintained by such costly sacrifices was, after all,
|
||
worthless, if a citizen could not be protected in all his
|
||
fundamental rights, everywhere -- North and South, East and
|
||
West -- throughout the limits of the Republic. The amendment
|
||
was not, as held in the opinion of the majority, primarily
|
||
intended to confer citizenship on the negro race. It had a
|
||
much broader purpose. It was intended to justify legislation
|
||
extending the protection of the National Government over the
|
||
common rights of all citizens of the United States, and thus
|
||
obviate objection to the legislation adopted for the
|
||
protection of the emancipated race. It was intended to make it
|
||
possible for all persons -- which necessarily included those
|
||
of every race and color -- to live in peace and security
|
||
wherever the jurisdiction of the nation reached. It therefore
|
||
recognized, if it did not create, a national citizenship. This
|
||
national citizenship is primary and not secondary."
|
||
|
||
I cannot refrain from calling attention to the splendor and
|
||
nobility of the truths expressed by justice Field in this opinion.
|
||
|
||
So, justice Field, in his dissenting opinion in what are known
|
||
as The Slaughter-House Cases, found in 16 Wallace, P. 95, still
|
||
speaking of the 14th Amendment, says:
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
12
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
It recognizes in express terms -- if it does not create
|
||
-- citizens of the United States, and it makes their
|
||
citizenship dependent upon the place of their birth or the
|
||
fact of their adoption, and not upon the constitution or laws
|
||
of any State, or the condition of their ancestry. A citizen of
|
||
a State is now only a citizen of the United States residing in
|
||
that State. The fundamental rights, privileges and immunities
|
||
which belong to him as a free man and a free citizen of the
|
||
United States, are not dependent upon the citizenship of any
|
||
State. * * *
|
||
|
||
"They do not derive their existence from its legislation,
|
||
and cannot be destroyed by its power."
|
||
|
||
What are "the fundamental rights, privileges and immunities"
|
||
which belong to a free man? Certainly the rights of all citizens of
|
||
the United States are equal. Their immunities and privileges must
|
||
be the same. He who makes a discrimination between citizens on
|
||
account of color, violates the Constitution of the United States.
|
||
|
||
Have all citizens the same right to travel on the highways of
|
||
the country? Have they all the same right to ride upon the railways
|
||
created by State authority? A railway is an improved highway. It
|
||
was only by holding that it was an improved highway that counties
|
||
and States aided in their construction. It has been decided, over
|
||
and over again, that a railway is an improved highway. A railway
|
||
corporation is the creation of a State -- an agent of the State. It
|
||
is under the control of the State -- and upon what principle can a
|
||
citizen be prevented from using the highways of a State on an
|
||
equality with all other citizens?
|
||
|
||
These are all rights and immunities guaranteed by the
|
||
Constitution of the United States.
|
||
|
||
Now, the question is -- and it is the only question -- can
|
||
these rights and immunities, thus guaranteed and thus confirmed, be
|
||
protected by the General Government?
|
||
|
||
In the case of The U.S. vs. Reese, el al, 92 U.S., P. 207, the
|
||
Supreme Court decided, the opinion having been delivered by Chief-
|
||
justice Waite, as follows:
|
||
|
||
"Rights and immunities created by, and dependent upon,
|
||
the Constitution of the United States can be protected by
|
||
Congress. The form and the manner of the protection may be
|
||
such as Congress in the legitimate exercise of its legislative
|
||
discretion shall provide. This may be varied to meet the
|
||
necessities of the particular right to be protected."
|
||
|
||
This decision was acquiesced in by justices Strong, Bradley,
|
||
Swayne, Davis, Miller and Field. Dissenting opinions were filed by
|
||
justices Clifford and Hunt, but neither dissented from the
|
||
proposition that:
|
||
|
||
"Rights and immunities created by or dependent upon the
|
||
Constitution of the United States can be protected by
|
||
Congress," and that the form and manner of the protection may
|
||
be such, as Congress in the exercise of its legitimate
|
||
discretion shall provide."
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
13
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
So, in the same case, I find this language:
|
||
|
||
"It follows that the Amendment" -- meaning the 15th --
|
||
"has invested the citizens of the United States with a new
|
||
constitutional right, which is within the protecting power of
|
||
Congress. This, under the express provisions of the second
|
||
section of the Amendment, Congress may enforce by appropriate
|
||
legislation."
|
||
|
||
If the 15th Amendment invested the citizens of the United
|
||
States with a new constitutional right -- that is, the right to
|
||
vote -- and if for that reason that right is within the protecting
|
||
power of Congress, then I ask, if the 14th Amendment made certain
|
||
persons citizens of the United States, did such citizenship become
|
||
a constitutional right? And is such citizenship within the
|
||
protecting power of Congress? Does citizenship mean anything except
|
||
certain "rights, privileges and immunities"?
|
||
|
||
Is it not an invasion of citizenship to invade the immunities
|
||
or privileges or rights belonging to a citizen? Are not, then, all
|
||
the immunities and privileges and rights under the protecting power
|
||
of Congress?
|
||
|
||
The 13th Amendment found the negro a slave, and made him a
|
||
free man. That gave to him a new constitutional right, and
|
||
according to the Supreme Court, that right is within the protecting
|
||
power of Congress.
|
||
|
||
What rights are within the protecting power of Congress? All
|
||
the rights belonging to a free man.
|
||
|
||
The 14th Amendment made the negro a citizen. What then is
|
||
under the protecting power of Congress? All the rights, privileges
|
||
and immunities belonging to him as a citizen.
|
||
|
||
So, in the case of Tennessee vs. Davis, 100 U.S., 263, the
|
||
Supreme Court, held that:
|
||
|
||
The United States is a government whose authority extends
|
||
over he whole territory of the Union, acting upon all the
|
||
States, and upon all the people of all the States.
|
||
|
||
"No State can exclude the Federal Government from the
|
||
exercise of any authority conferred upon it by the
|
||
Constitution, or withhold from it for a moment the cognizance
|
||
of any subject which the Constitution has committed to it."
|
||
|
||
This opinion was given by justice Strong, and acquiesced in by
|
||
Chief-justice Waite, justices Miller, Swayne, Bradley and Harlan.
|
||
|
||
So in the case of Pensacola Tel. Co. vs. Western Union Tel.
|
||
Co., 96 U.S., p. 10, the opinion having been delivered by Chief-
|
||
justice Waite, I find this:
|
||
|
||
"The Government of the United States, within the scope of
|
||
its power, operates upon every foot of territory under its
|
||
jurisdiction. It legislates for the whole Nation, and is not
|
||
embarrassed by State lines."
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
14
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
This was acquiesced in by justices Clifford, Strong, Bradley,
|
||
Swayne and Miller.
|
||
|
||
So we are told by the entire Supreme Court in the case of
|
||
Tiernan vs. Rynker, 102 U.S., 126, that:
|
||
|
||
"When the subject to which the power applies is national
|
||
in its character, or of such a nature as to admit of
|
||
uniformity of regulation, the power is exclusive of State
|
||
authority."
|
||
|
||
Surely the question of citizenship is "national in its
|
||
character." Surely the question as to what are the rights,
|
||
privileges and immunities of a citizen of the United States is
|
||
"national" in its character.
|
||
|
||
Unless the declarations and definitions, the patriotic
|
||
paragraphs, and the legal principles made, given, uttered and
|
||
defined by the Supreme Court are but a judicial jugglery of words,
|
||
the Civil Rights Act is upheld by the intent, spirit and language
|
||
of the 14th Amendment.
|
||
|
||
It was found that the 13th Amendment did not protect the
|
||
negro. Then the 14th was adopted. Still the colored citizen was
|
||
trodden under foot. Then the 15th was adopted. The 13th made him
|
||
free, and, in my judgment, made him a citizen, and clothed him with
|
||
all the rights of a citizen. That was denied, and then the 14th
|
||
declared that he was a citizen. In my judgment, that gave him the
|
||
right to vote. But that was denied -- then the 15th was adopted,
|
||
declaring that his right to vote should never be denied.
|
||
|
||
The 13th Amendment made all free. It broke the chains, pulled
|
||
up the whipping-posts, overturned the auction-blocks, gave the
|
||
colored mother her child, put the shield of the Constitution over
|
||
the cradle, destroyed all forms of involuntary servitude, and in
|
||
the azure heaven of our flag it put the Northern Star.
|
||
|
||
The 14th Amendment made us all citizens. It is a contract
|
||
between the Republic and each individual -- a contract by which the
|
||
Nation agrees to protect the citizen, and the citizen agrees to
|
||
defend the Nation. This amendment placed the crown of sovereignty
|
||
on every brow.
|
||
|
||
The 15th Amendment secured the citizen in his right to vote,
|
||
in his right to make and execute the laws, and put these rights
|
||
above the power of any State. This amendment placed the ballot --
|
||
the scepter of authority -- in every sovereign hand.
|
||
|
||
We are told by the Supreme Court, in the case under
|
||
discussion, that:
|
||
|
||
"We must not forget that the province and scope of the
|
||
13th and 14th Amendments are different; "that the 13th
|
||
Amendment "simply abolished slavery," and that the 14th
|
||
Amendment "prohibited the States from abridging the privileges
|
||
and immunities of citizens of the United States; from
|
||
depriving them of life, liberty or property, without due
|
||
process of law; and from denying to any the equal protection
|
||
of the laws."
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
15
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
We are told that:
|
||
|
||
"The amendments are different, and the powers of Congress
|
||
under them are different. What Congress has power to do under
|
||
one it may not have power to do under the other." That "under
|
||
the 13th Amendment it has only to do with slavery and its
|
||
incidents; "but that "under the 14th Amendment it has power to
|
||
counteract and render nugatory all State laws or proceedings
|
||
which have the effect to abridge any of the privileges or
|
||
immunities of the citizens of the United States, or to deprive
|
||
them of life, liberty or property, without due process of law,
|
||
or to deny to any of them the equal protection of the laws."
|
||
|
||
Did not Congress have that power under the 13th Amendment?
|
||
Could the States, in spite of the 13th Amendment, deprive free men
|
||
of life or property without due process of law? Does the Supreme
|
||
Court wish to be understood, that until the 14th Amendment was
|
||
adopted the States had the right to rob and kill free men? Yet, in
|
||
its effort to narrow and belittle the 13th Amendment, it has been
|
||
driven to this absurdity. Did not Congress, under the 13th
|
||
Amendment, have power to destroy slavery and involuntary servitude?
|
||
Did not Congress, under that amendment, have the power to protect
|
||
the lives, liberty and property of free men? And did not Congress
|
||
have the power "to render nugatory all State laws and proceedings
|
||
under which free men were to be deprived of life, liberty or
|
||
property, without due process of law"?
|
||
|
||
If Congress was not clothed with such power by the 13th
|
||
Amendment, what was the object of that amendment? Was that
|
||
amendment a mere opinion, or a prophecy, or the expression of a
|
||
hope?
|
||
|
||
The 14th Amendment provides that:
|
||
|
||
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
|
||
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
|
||
States. 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 its
|
||
laws."
|
||
|
||
We are told by the Supreme Court that Congress has no right to
|
||
enforce the 14th Amendment by direct legislation, but that the
|
||
legislation under that amendment can only be of a "corrective"
|
||
character -- such as may be necessary or proper for counteracting
|
||
and redressing the effect of unconstitutional laws passed by the
|
||
States. In other words, that Congress has no duty to perform,
|
||
except to counteract the effect of unconstitutional laws by
|
||
corrective legislation.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court has also decided, in the present case, that
|
||
Congress has no right to legislate for the purpose of enforcing
|
||
these clauses until the States shall have taken action. What action
|
||
can the State take? If a State passes laws contrary to these
|
||
provisions or clauses, they are void. If a State passes laws in
|
||
conformity to these provisions, certainly Congress is not called on
|
||
to legislate. Under what circumstances, then, can Congress be
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
16
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
called upon to act by way of "corrective" legislation, as to these
|
||
particular clauses? What can Congress do? Suppose the State passes
|
||
no law upon the subject, but allows citizens of the State --
|
||
managers of railways, and keepers of public inns, to discriminate
|
||
between their passengers and guests on account of race or color --
|
||
what then?
|
||
|
||
Again, what is the difference between a State that has no law
|
||
on the subject, and a State that has passed an unconstitutional
|
||
law? In other words, what is the difference between no law and a
|
||
void law? If the "corrective" legislation of Congress is not needed
|
||
where the State has passed an unconstitutional law, is it needed
|
||
where the State has passed no law? What is there in either case to
|
||
correct? Surely it requires no particular legislation on the part
|
||
of Congress to kill a law that never had life.
|
||
|
||
The States are prohibited by the Constitution from making any
|
||
regulations of foreign commerce. Consequently, all regulations made
|
||
by the States are null and void, no matter what the motive of the
|
||
States may have been, and it requires no law of Congress to annul
|
||
such laws or regulations. This was decided by the Supreme Court of
|
||
the United States, long ago, in what are known as The License
|
||
Cases. The opinion may be found in the 5th of Howard, 583.
|
||
|
||
"The nullity of any act inconsistent with the
|
||
Constitution, is produced by the declaration that the
|
||
Constitution is supreme."
|
||
|
||
This was decided by the Supreme Court, the opinion having been
|
||
delivered by Chief justice Marshall, in the case of Gibbons vs.
|
||
Ogden, 9 Wheat, 210.
|
||
|
||
The same doctrine was held in the case of Henderson et al, vs.
|
||
Mayor of New York, el al, 92 U.S. 272 -- the opinion of the Court
|
||
being delivered by justice Miller.
|
||
|
||
So it was held in the case of The Board of Liquidation vs.
|
||
McComb -- 2 Otto, 541 --
|
||
|
||
"That an unconstitutional law will be treated by the
|
||
courts as null and void" --
|
||
|
||
citing Osborn vs. The Bank of the United States, 9 Wheaton, 859,
|
||
and Davis vs. Gray, 16 Wallace, 220.
|
||
|
||
Now, if the legislation of Congress must be "corrective," then
|
||
I ask, corrective of what? Certainly not of unconstitutional and
|
||
void laws. That which is void, cannot be corrected. That which is
|
||
unconstitutional is not the subject of correction. Congress either
|
||
has the right to legislate directly, or not at all; because
|
||
indirect or corrective legislation can apply only, according to the
|
||
Supreme Court, to unconstitutional and void laws that have been
|
||
passed by a State; and as such laws cannot be "corrected," the
|
||
doctrine of "corrective legislation" dies an extremely natural
|
||
death.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
17
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
A State can do one of three things: 1. It can pass an
|
||
unconstitutional law; 2. It can pass a constitutional law; 3. It
|
||
can fail to pass any law. The unconstitutional law, being void,
|
||
cannot be corrected. The constitutional law does not need
|
||
correction. And where no law has been passed, correction is
|
||
impossible.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court insists that Congress can not take action
|
||
until the State does. A State that fails to pass any law on the
|
||
subject, has not taken action. This leaves the person whose
|
||
immunities and privileges have been invaded, with no redress except
|
||
such as he may find in the State Courts in a suit at law; and if
|
||
the State Court takes the same view that is apparently taken by the
|
||
Supreme Court in this case, -- namely, that it is a " social
|
||
question," one not to be regulated by law, and not covered in any
|
||
way by the Constitution -- then, discrimination can be made against
|
||
citizens by landlords and railway conductors, and they are left
|
||
absolutely without remedy.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court asks, in this decision,
|
||
|
||
"Can the act of a mere individual -- the owner of the
|
||
inn, or public conveyance, or place of amusement, refusing the
|
||
accommodation, be justly regarded as imposing any badge of
|
||
slavery or servitude upon the applicant, or only as inflicting
|
||
an ordinary civil injury properly cognizable by the laws of
|
||
the State, and presumably subject to redress by those laws,
|
||
until the contrary appears?"
|
||
|
||
How is "the contrary to appear"? Suppose a person denied equal
|
||
privileges upon the railway on account of race and color, brings
|
||
suit and is defeated? And suppose the highest tribunal of the State
|
||
holds that the question is of a "social" character -- what then?
|
||
If, to use the language of the Supreme Court, it is "an ordinary
|
||
civil injury, imposing no badge of slavery or servitude," then, no
|
||
Federal question is involved.
|
||
|
||
Why did not the Supreme Court tell us what may be done when
|
||
"the contrary appears"? Nothing is clearer than the intention of
|
||
the Supreme Court in this case -- and that is, to decide that
|
||
denying to a man equal accommodations at public inns on account of
|
||
race or color, is not an abridgment of a privilege or immunity of
|
||
a citizen of the United States, and that such person, so denied, is
|
||
not in a condition of involuntary servitude, or denied the equal
|
||
protection of the laws. In other words -- that it is a "social
|
||
question."
|
||
|
||
I have been told by one who heard the decision when it was
|
||
read from the bench, that the following phrase was in the opinion:
|
||
|
||
"There are certain physiological differences of race that
|
||
cannot be ignored."
|
||
|
||
That phrase is a lamp, in the light of which the whole
|
||
decision should be read.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
18
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Suppose that in one of the Southern States, the negroes being
|
||
in a decided majority and having entire control, had drawn the
|
||
color line, had insisted that:
|
||
|
||
"There were certain physiological differences between the
|
||
races that could not be ignored,"
|
||
|
||
and had refused to allow white people to enter their hotels, to
|
||
ride in the best cars, or to occupy the aristocratic portion of a
|
||
theater; and suppose that a white man, thrust from the hotels,
|
||
denied the entrance to cars, had brought his suit in the Federal
|
||
Court. Does any one believe that the Supreme Court would have
|
||
intimated to that man that "there is only a social question
|
||
involved, -- a question with which the Constitution and laws have
|
||
nothing to do, and that he must depend for his remedy upon the
|
||
authors of the injury"? Would a white man, under such
|
||
circumstances, feel that he was in a condition of involuntary
|
||
servitude? Would he feel that he was treated like an underling,
|
||
like a menial, like a serf? Would he feel that he was under the
|
||
protection of the laws, shielded like other men by the
|
||
Constitution? Of course, the argument of color is just as strong on
|
||
one side as on the other. The white man says to the black, "You are
|
||
not my equal because you are black;" and the black man can with the
|
||
same propriety, reply, "You are not my equal because you are
|
||
white," The difference is just as great in the one case as in the
|
||
other. The pretext that this question involves, in the remotest
|
||
degree, a social question, is cruel, shallow, and absurd.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court, some time ago, held that the 4th Section of
|
||
the Civil Rights Act was constitutional. That section declares
|
||
that:
|
||
|
||
"No citizen possessing all other qualifications which are
|
||
or may be prescribed by law, shall be disqualified for service
|
||
as grand or petit juror in any court of the United States or
|
||
of any State, on account of color or previous condition of
|
||
servitude."
|
||
|
||
It also provides that:
|
||
|
||
"If any officer or other person charged with any duty in
|
||
the selection or summoning of jurors, shall exclude, or fail
|
||
to summon, any citizen in the case aforesaid, he shall, on
|
||
conviction, be guilty of misdemeanor and be fined not more
|
||
than five hundred dollars."
|
||
|
||
In the case known as Ex-parte vs. Virginia -- found in 100
|
||
U.S. 339 -- it was held that an indictment against a State officer,
|
||
nuder this section, for excluding persons of color from the jury,
|
||
could be sustained. Now, let it be remembered, there was no law of
|
||
the State of Virginia, by virtue of which a man was disqualified
|
||
from sitting on the jury by reason of race or color. The officer
|
||
did exclude, and did fail to summon, a citizen on account of race
|
||
or color or previous condition of servitude. And the Supreme Court
|
||
held:
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
19
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
"That whether the Statute-book of the State actually
|
||
laiddown any such rule of disqualification or not, the State,
|
||
through its officer, enforced such rule; and that it was
|
||
against such State action, through its officers and agents,
|
||
that the last clause of the section was directed."
|
||
|
||
The Court further held that:
|
||
|
||
"This aspect of the law was deemed sufficient to divest
|
||
it of any unconstitutional character."
|
||
|
||
In other words, the Supreme Court held that the officer was an
|
||
agent of the State, although acting contrary to the statute of the
|
||
State; and that, consequently, such officer, acting outside of law,
|
||
was amenable to the Civil Rights Act, under the 14th Amendment,
|
||
that referred only to States. The question arises: Is a State
|
||
responsible for the action of its agent when acting contrary to
|
||
law? In other words: Is the principal bound by the acts of his
|
||
agent, that act not being within the scope of his authority? Is a
|
||
State liable -- or is the Government liable -- for the act of any
|
||
officer, that act not being authorized by law?
|
||
|
||
It has been decided a thousand times, that a State is not
|
||
liable for the torts and trespasses of its officers. How then can
|
||
the agent, acting outside of his authority, be prosecuted under a
|
||
law deriving its entire validity from a constitutional amendment
|
||
applying only to States? Does an officer, by acting contrary to
|
||
State law, become so like a State that the word State, used in the
|
||
Constitution, includes him?
|
||
|
||
So it was held in the case of Neal vs. Delaware, -- 103 U.S.,
|
||
307, -- that an officer acting contrary to the laws of the State --
|
||
in defiance of those laws -- would be amenable to the Civil Rights
|
||
Act, passed under an amendment to the Constitution now held
|
||
applicable only to States.
|
||
|
||
It is admitted, and expressly decided in the case of The U.S.
|
||
vs. Reese et al, (already quoted) that when the wrongful refusal at
|
||
an election is because of race, color, or previous condition of
|
||
servitude, Congress can interfere and provide for the punishment of
|
||
any individual guilty of such refusal, no matter whether such
|
||
individual acted under or against the authority of the State.
|
||
|
||
With this statement I most heartily agree. I agree that:
|
||
|
||
"When the wrongful refusal is because of race, color, or
|
||
previous condition of servitude, Congress can interfere and
|
||
provide for the punishment of any individual guilty of such
|
||
refusal."
|
||
|
||
That is the key that unlocks the whole question. Congress has
|
||
power -- full, complete, and ample, -- to protect all citizens from
|
||
unjust discrimination, and from being deprived of equal privileges
|
||
on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. And
|
||
this language is just as applicable to the 13th and 14th, as to the
|
||
15th Amendment. If a citizen is denied the accommodations of a
|
||
public inn, or a seat in a railway car, on account of race or
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
20
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
color, or deprived of liberty on account of race or color, the
|
||
Constitution has been violated, and the citizen thus discriminated
|
||
against or thus deprived of liberty, is entitled to redress in a
|
||
Federal Court.
|
||
|
||
It is held by the Supreme Court that the word "State" does not
|
||
apply to the "people" of the State -- that it applies only to the
|
||
agents of the people of the State. And yet, the word "State," as
|
||
used in the Constitution, has been held to include not only the
|
||
persons in office, but the people who elected them -- not only the
|
||
agents, but the principals. In the Constitution it is provided that
|
||
"no State shall coin money; and no State shall emit bills of
|
||
credit." According to this decision, any person in any State,
|
||
unless prevented by State authority, has the right to coin money
|
||
and to emit bills of credit, and Congress has no power to legislate
|
||
upon the subject -- provided he does not counterfeit any of the
|
||
coins or current money of the United States. Congress would have to
|
||
deal -- not with the individuals, but with the State; and unless
|
||
the State had passed some act allowing persons to coin money, or
|
||
emit bills of credit, Congress could do nothing. Yet, long ago,
|
||
Congress passed a statute preventing any person in any State from
|
||
coining money. No matter if a citizen should coin it of pure gold,
|
||
of the requisite fineness and weight, and not in the likeness of
|
||
United States coins, he would be a criminal. We have a silver
|
||
dollar, coined by the Government, worth eighty-five cents; and yet,
|
||
if any person, in any State, should coin what he called a dollar,
|
||
not like our money, but with a dollar's worth of silver in it, he
|
||
would be guilty of a crime.
|
||
|
||
It may be said that the Constitution provides that Congress
|
||
shall have power to coin money, and provide for the punishment of
|
||
counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United
|
||
States; in other words, that the Constitution gives power to
|
||
Congress to coin money and denies it to the States, not only, but
|
||
gives Congress the power to legislate against counterfeiting. So,
|
||
in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, power is given to Congress,
|
||
and power is denied to the States, not only, but Congress is
|
||
expressly authorized to enforce the amendments by appropriate
|
||
legislation. Certainly the power is as broad in the one case as in
|
||
the other; and in both cases, individuals can be reached as well as
|
||
States.
|
||
|
||
So the Constitution provides that:
|
||
|
||
"Congress shall have power to regulate commerce among the
|
||
several States."
|
||
|
||
Under this clause Congress deals directly with individuals.
|
||
The States are not engaged in commerce, but the people are; and
|
||
Congress makes rules and regulations for the government of the
|
||
people so engaged.
|
||
|
||
The Constitution also provides that:
|
||
|
||
"Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with the
|
||
Indian tribes."
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
21
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
It was held in the case of The United States vs. Holliday, 3
|
||
Wall., 407, that:
|
||
|
||
"Commerce with the Indian tribes means commerce with the
|
||
individuals composing those tribes."
|
||
|
||
And under this clause it has been further decided that
|
||
Congress has the power to regulate commerce not only between white
|
||
people and Indian tribes, but between Indian tribes; and not only
|
||
that, but between individual Indians. Worcester vs. The State, 6
|
||
Pet., 575; The United States vs. 43 Gallons, 93 U.S., 188; The
|
||
United States vs: Shawmux, 2 Saw., 304.
|
||
|
||
Now, if the word "tribe" includes individual Indians, may not
|
||
the word "State" include citizens?
|
||
|
||
In this decision it is admitted by the Supreme Court that
|
||
where a subject is submitted to the general legislative power of
|
||
Congress, then Congress has plenary powers of legislation over the
|
||
whole subject. Let us apply these words to the 13th Amendment. In
|
||
this very decision I find that the 13th Amendment:
|
||
|
||
"By its own unaided force and effect, abolished slavery
|
||
and established universal freedom."
|
||
|
||
The Court admits that:
|
||
|
||
"Legislation may be necessary and proper to meet all the
|
||
various cases and circumstances to be affected by it, and to
|
||
prescribe proper modes of redress for its violation in letter
|
||
or spirit."
|
||
|
||
The Court further admits:
|
||
|
||
"And such legislation may be primary and direct in its
|
||
character."
|
||
|
||
And then gives the reason:
|
||
|
||
For the amendment is not a mere prohibition of State laws
|
||
establishing or upholding slavery, but an absolute declaration
|
||
that slavery or involuntary servitude shall not exist in any
|
||
part of the United States."
|
||
|
||
I now ask, has that subject -- that is to say, Liberty,-- been
|
||
submitted to the general legislative power of Congress? The 13th
|
||
Amendment provides that Congress shall have power to enforce that
|
||
amendment by appropriate legislation.
|
||
|
||
In construing the 13th and 14th Amendments and the Civil
|
||
Rights Act, it seems to me that the Supreme Court has forgotten the
|
||
principle of construction that has been laid down so often by
|
||
courts, and that is this: that in construing statutes, courts may
|
||
look to the history and condition of the country as circumstances
|
||
from which to gather the intention of the Legislature. So it seems
|
||
to me that the Court failed to remember the rule laid down by Story
|
||
in the case of Prigg vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 16 Pet.,
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
22
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
611, a rule laid down in the interest of slavery -- laid down for
|
||
the purpose of depriving human beings of their liberty:
|
||
|
||
Perhaps the safest rule of interpretation, after all,
|
||
will be found to be to look to the nature and objects of the
|
||
particular powers, duties and rights with all the lights and
|
||
aids of contemporary history, and to give to the words of each
|
||
just such operation and force consistent with their legitimate
|
||
meaning, as may fairly secure and attain the ends proposed."
|
||
|
||
It must be admitted that certain rights were conferred by the
|
||
13th Amendment. Surely certain rights were conferred by the 14th
|
||
Amendment; and these rights should be protected and upheld by the
|
||
Federal Government. And it was held in the case last cited, that:
|
||
|
||
"If by one mode of interpretation the right must become
|
||
shadowy and unsubstantial, and without any remedial power
|
||
adequate to the end, and by another mode it will attain its
|
||
just end and secure its manifest purpose -- it would seem,
|
||
upon principles of reasoning absolutely irresistible, that the
|
||
latter ought to prevail. No court of justice can be authorized
|
||
so as to construe any clauses of the Constitution as to defeat
|
||
its obvious ends, when another construction, equally accordant
|
||
with the words and sense thereof, will enforce and protect
|
||
them."
|
||
|
||
In the present case, the Supreme Court holds, that Congress
|
||
can not legislate upon this subject until the State has passed some
|
||
law contrary to the Constitution.
|
||
|
||
I call attention in reply to this, to the case of Hall vs. De
|
||
Cuir, 95 U.S., 486. The State of Louisiana, in 1869, acting in the
|
||
spirit of these amendments to the Constitution, passed a law
|
||
requiring that all persons engaged within that State in the
|
||
business of common carriers of passengers, should make no
|
||
discrimination on account of race, color, or previous condition of
|
||
servitude. Under this law, Mrs. De Cuir, a colored woman, took
|
||
passage on a steamer, buying a ticket from New Orleans to Hermitage
|
||
-- the entire trip being within the limits of the State. The
|
||
captain of the boat refused to give her equal accommodations with
|
||
other passengers -- the refusal being on the ground of her color.
|
||
She commenced suit against the captain in the State Court of
|
||
Louisiana, and recovered judgment for one thousand dollars. The
|
||
defendant appealed to the Supreme Court of that State, and the
|
||
judgment of the lower court was sustained. Thereupon, the captain
|
||
died, and the case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United
|
||
States by his administrator, on the ground that a Federal question
|
||
was involved.
|
||
|
||
You will see that this was a case where the State had acted,
|
||
and had acted exactly in accordance with the constitutional
|
||
amendments, and had by law provided that the privileges and
|
||
immunities of the citizen of the United States -- residing in the
|
||
State of Louisiana -- should not be abridged, and that no
|
||
distinction should be made on account of race or color. But in that
|
||
case the Supreme Court of the United States solemnly decided that
|
||
the legislation of the State was void -- that the State of
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
23
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Louisiana had no right to interfere -- no right, by law, to protect
|
||
a citizen of the United States from being discriminated against
|
||
under such circumstances.
|
||
|
||
You will remember that the plaintiff, Mrs. De Cuir, was to be
|
||
carried from New Orleans to Hermitage, and that both places were
|
||
within the State of Louisiana. Notwithstanding this, the Supreme
|
||
Court held:
|
||
|
||
"That if the public good required such legislation, it
|
||
must come from Congress and not from the State."
|
||
|
||
What reason do you suppose was given? It was this The
|
||
Constitution gives to Congress power to regulate commerce between
|
||
the States; and it appeared from the evidence given in that case,
|
||
that the boat plied between the ports of New Orleans and Vicksburg.
|
||
Consequently, it was engaged in interstate commerce. Therefore, it
|
||
was under the protection of Congress; and being under the
|
||
protection of Congress, the State had no authority to protect its
|
||
citizens by a law in perfect harmony with the Constitution of the
|
||
United States, while such citizens were within the limits of
|
||
Louisiana. The Supreme Court scorns the protection of a State!
|
||
|
||
In the case recently decided, and about which we are talking
|
||
to-night, the Supreme Court decides exactly the other way. It
|
||
decides that if the public good requires such legislation, it must
|
||
come from the States, and not from Congress; that Congress cannot
|
||
act until the State has acted, and until the State has acted wrong,
|
||
and that Congress can then only act for the purpose of "correcting"
|
||
such State action. The decision in Hall vs. De Cuir was rendered in
|
||
1877. The Civil Rights Act was then in force, and applied to all
|
||
persons within the jurisdiction of the United States, and provided
|
||
expressly that:
|
||
|
||
"All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States
|
||
shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the
|
||
accommodations, privileges, and facilities of inns, public
|
||
conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of
|
||
public amusement, without regard to race or color."
|
||
|
||
And yet the Supreme Court said:
|
||
|
||
"No carrier of passengers can conduct his business with
|
||
satisfaction to himself, or comfort to those employing him, if
|
||
on one side of a State line his passengers, both white and
|
||
colored, must be permitted to occupy the same cabin, and on
|
||
the other to be kept separate."
|
||
|
||
What right had the other State to pass a law that passengers
|
||
should be kept separate, on account of race or color? How could
|
||
such a law have been constitutional? The Civil Rights Act applied
|
||
to all States, and to both sides of the lines between all States,
|
||
and produced absolute uniformity -- and did not put the captain to
|
||
the trouble of dividing his passengers. The Court further said:
|
||
|
||
"Uniformity in the regulations by which the carrier is to
|
||
be governed from one end to the other of his route, is a
|
||
necessity in his business."
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
24
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
The uniformity had been guaranteed by the Civil Rights Act,
|
||
and the statute of the State of Louisiana was in exact conformity
|
||
with the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act. The Court also
|
||
said:
|
||
|
||
"And to secure uniformity, Congress, which is untrammeled
|
||
by state lines, has been invested with the exclusive power of
|
||
determining what such regulations shall be."
|
||
|
||
Yes, Congress has been invested with such power, and Congress
|
||
has used it in passing the Civil Rights Act -- and yet, under these
|
||
circumstances, the Court proceeds to imagine the difficulty that a
|
||
captain would have in dividing his passengers as he crosses a State
|
||
line, keeping them apart until he reaches the line of another
|
||
State, and then bringing them together, and so going on through the
|
||
process of dispersing and huddling, to the end of his unfortunate
|
||
route.
|
||
|
||
It is held by the Supreme Court, that uniformity of duties is
|
||
essential to the carrier, and so essential, that Congress has
|
||
control of the whole matter. If uniformity is so desirable for the
|
||
carrier that Congress takes control, then uniformity as to the
|
||
rights of passengers is equally desirable; and under the 13th and
|
||
14th Amendments, Congress has the exclusive power to state what the
|
||
rights, privileges and immunities of passengers shall be. So that,
|
||
in 1877, the Supreme Court decided that the States could not
|
||
legislate; and in 1883, that Congress could not, unless the State
|
||
had. If Congress controls interstate commerce upon the navigable
|
||
waters, it also controls interstate commerce upon the railways. And
|
||
if Congress has exclusive jurisdiction in the one case, it has in
|
||
the other. And if it has exclusive jurisdiction, it does not have
|
||
to wait until States take action. If it does not have to wait until
|
||
States take action, then the Civil Rights Act, in so far as it
|
||
refers to the rights of passengers going from one State to another,
|
||
must be constitutional.
|
||
|
||
It must be remembered, in this discussion, that the 8th
|
||
Section of, the Constitution conferred upon Congress the power:
|
||
|
||
"To make all laws that may be necessary and proper for
|
||
carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution
|
||
in the Government of the United States."
|
||
|
||
So the 2nd Section of the 13th Article provides:
|
||
|
||
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
|
||
appropriate legislation."
|
||
|
||
The same language is used in the 14th and 15th Amendments.
|
||
|
||
"This clause does not limit -- it enlarges -- the powers
|
||
vested in the General Government. It is an additional power --
|
||
not a restriction on those already granted. It does not impair
|
||
the right of the Legislature to exercise its best judgment in
|
||
the selection of measures to carry into execution the
|
||
constitutional powers of the Government. A sound construction
|
||
of the Constitution must allow to the National Legislature
|
||
that discretion with respect to the means by which the powers
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
25
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
it confers are to be carried into execution, which will enable
|
||
that body to perform the high duties assigned to it in the
|
||
manner most beneficial to the people. Let the end be
|
||
legitimate -- let it be within the scope of the Constitution,
|
||
and all means which are appropriate -- which are plainly
|
||
adapted to that end -- are constitutional."
|
||
|
||
This is the language of Chief Justice Marshall, in the case of
|
||
M'Cauley, vs. The State, 4 Wheaton, 316.
|
||
|
||
Congress must possess the choice of means, and must be
|
||
empowered to use any means which are in fact conducive to the
|
||
exercise of a power granted by the Constitution." U.S. vs. Fisher,
|
||
2 Cranch, 358.
|
||
|
||
Again:
|
||
|
||
"The power of Congress to pass laws to enforce rights
|
||
conferred by the Constitution is not limited to the express
|
||
powers of legislation enumerated in the Constitution. The
|
||
powers which are necessary and proper as means to carry into
|
||
effect rights expressly given and duties expressly enjoined,
|
||
are always implied. The end being given, the means to
|
||
accomplish it are given also." Prigg vs. The Commonwealth, 16
|
||
Peters, 539.
|
||
|
||
This decision was delivered by justice Story, and is the same
|
||
one already referred to, in which liberty was taken from a human
|
||
being by judicial construction. It was held in that case that the
|
||
2nd Section of the 4th Article of the Constitution, to which I have
|
||
already called attention, contained "a positive and unqualified
|
||
recognition of the right" of the owner in a slave, unaffected by
|
||
any State law or regulation. If this is so, then I assert that the
|
||
13th Amendment "contains a positive and unqualified recognition of
|
||
the right" of every human being to liberty; that the 14th Amendment
|
||
"contains a positive and unqualified recognition of the right" to
|
||
citizenship; and that the 15th Amendment contains a positive and
|
||
unqualified recognition of the right" to vote.
|
||
|
||
Justice Story held in that case that:
|
||
|
||
"Under and by virtue of that section of the Constitution
|
||
the owner of a slave was clothed with entire authority in
|
||
every State in the nation to seize and recapture his slave."
|
||
|
||
He also held that:
|
||
|
||
In that sense, and to that extent, that clause of the
|
||
Constitution might properly be said to execute itself, and to
|
||
require no aid from legislation -- State or National."
|
||
|
||
But," says justice Story:
|
||
|
||
The clause of the Constitution does not stop there, but
|
||
says that he, the slave, shall be delivered up on claim of the
|
||
party to whom such service or labor may be due.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
26
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
And he holds that:
|
||
|
||
Under that clause of the section Congress became clothed
|
||
with the appropriate authority to legislate for its
|
||
enforcement."
|
||
|
||
Now let us look at the 13th and 14th Amendments in the light
|
||
of that decision.
|
||
|
||
First. Liberty and citizenship were given the colored people
|
||
by this amendment. And justice Story tells us that:
|
||
|
||
The power of Congress to enforce rights conferred by the
|
||
Constitution is not limited to the express powers of
|
||
legislation enumerated in the Constitution, but the powers
|
||
which are necessary to protect such rights are always
|
||
implied."
|
||
|
||
Language cannot be stronger; words cannot be clearer. But now
|
||
this decision has been reversed by the Supreme Court, and Congress
|
||
is left powerless to protect rights conferred by the Constitution.
|
||
It has been shorn of implied powers, It has duties to perform, and
|
||
no power to act. It has rights to protect, but cannot choose the
|
||
means. It is entangled in its own strength. It is a prisoner in the
|
||
bastille of judicial construction.
|
||
|
||
Let us go further. justice Story tells us that:
|
||
|
||
"The words 'but shall be given up on the claim of the
|
||
person to whom such labor or service may be due,' clothes
|
||
Congress with the appropriate authority to legislate for its
|
||
enforcement."
|
||
|
||
In the light of this remark, let us look at the 14th
|
||
Amendment:
|
||
|
||
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
|
||
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
|
||
United States and of the State wherein they reside."
|
||
|
||
To which are added there words:
|
||
|
||
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
|
||
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
|
||
States; 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, if the words: "But shall be delivered up on claim of the
|
||
party to whom such service or labor may be due," clothes Congress
|
||
with power to legislate upon the entire subject, then I ask if the
|
||
words in the 14th Amendment declaring that "no law shall be made by
|
||
any State, or enforced, which shall abridge the privileges or
|
||
immunities of citizens of the United States; and that no State
|
||
shall 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," does not clothe Congress with the
|
||
power to legislate upon the entire subject?
|
||
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
27
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
In the two cases there is only this difference: The first
|
||
decision was made in the interest of human slavery -- made to
|
||
protect property in man; and the second decision ought to have been
|
||
made for exactly the opposite purpose. Under the first decision,
|
||
Congress had the right to select the means -- but now that is
|
||
denied. And yet it was decided in M'Cauley vs. The State, 4
|
||
Wheaton, 316, that:
|
||
|
||
"When the Government has a right to do an act, and has
|
||
imposed on it the duty of performing an act then it must,
|
||
according to the dictates of reason, be allowed to select the
|
||
means."
|
||
|
||
Again:
|
||
|
||
"The Government has the right to employ freely every
|
||
means not prohibited, for the fulfillment of its acknowledged
|
||
duties."
|
||
|
||
The Legal Tender Cases -- 12 Wallace, 457.
|
||
|
||
|
||
It will thus be seen that Congress has the undoubted right to
|
||
make all laws necessary for the exercise of all the powers vested
|
||
in it by the Constitution. When the Constitution imposes a duty
|
||
upon Congress, it grants the necessary means. Congress certainly,
|
||
then, has the right to pass all necessary laws for the enforcement
|
||
of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Any legislation is
|
||
"appropriate" that is calculated to accomplish the end sought and
|
||
that is not repugnant to the Constitution. Within these limits
|
||
Congress has the sovereign power of choice. No better definition of
|
||
"appropriate legislation" has been given than that by the Supreme
|
||
Court of California, in the case of The People vs. Washington, 38
|
||
California, 658:
|
||
|
||
Legislation which practically tends to facilitate the
|
||
securing to all, through the aid of the judicial and executive
|
||
departments of the Government, the full enjoyment of personal
|
||
freedom, is appropriate."
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court despairingly asks:
|
||
|
||
"If this legislation is appropriate for enforcing the
|
||
prohibitions of the Amendment, it is difficult to see where it
|
||
is to stop. Why may not Congress, with equal show of
|
||
authority, enact a code of laws for the enforcement and
|
||
vindication of all rights of life, liberty and property?
|
||
|
||
My answer is: The legislation will stop when and where the
|
||
discriminations on account of race, color or previous condition of
|
||
servitude stop. Whenever an immunity or privilege of a citizen of
|
||
the United States is trodden down by the State, or by an
|
||
individual, under the circumstances mentioned in the Civil Rights
|
||
Act -- that is to say, on account of race, color, or previous
|
||
condition of servitude -- then the Federal Government must
|
||
interfere. The Government must defend the immunities and privileges
|
||
of its citizens. not only from State invasion, but from individual
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
28
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
invaders, when that invasion is based upon the distinction of race,
|
||
color, or previous condition of servitude. The Government has taken
|
||
upon itself that duty. This duty can be discharged by a law making
|
||
a uniform rule, obligatory not only upon States, but upon
|
||
individuals. All this will stop when the discriminations stop.
|
||
|
||
After such examination of the authorities as I have been able
|
||
to make, I lay down the following propositions, namely:
|
||
|
||
1. The sovereignty of a State extends only to that which
|
||
exists by its own authority.
|
||
|
||
2. The powers of the General Government were not conferred by
|
||
the people of a single State; they were given by the people of the
|
||
United States; and the laws of the United States, in pursuance of
|
||
the Constitution, are supreme over the entire Republic.
|
||
|
||
3. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of
|
||
each State.
|
||
|
||
4. The United States is a Government whose authority extends
|
||
over the whole territory of the Union, acting upon all the States
|
||
and upon all the people of all the States.
|
||
|
||
5. No State can exclude the Federal Government from the
|
||
exercise of any authority conferred upon it by the Constitution, or
|
||
withhold from it, for a moment, the cognizance of any subject which
|
||
that instrument has committed to it.
|
||
|
||
6. It is the duty of Congress to enforce the Constitution, and
|
||
it has been clothed with power to make all laws necessary and
|
||
proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
|
||
Constitution in the General Government.
|
||
|
||
7. It is the duty of the Government to protect every citizen
|
||
of the United States in all his rights, everywhere, without regard
|
||
to race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and this the
|
||
Government has the right to do by direct legislation.
|
||
|
||
8. Every citizen, when his privileges and immunities are
|
||
invaded by the legislature of a State, has the right of appeal from
|
||
such State to the Supreme Court of the nation.
|
||
|
||
9. When a State fails to pass any law protecting a citizen
|
||
from discrimination on account of race or color, and fails, in
|
||
fact, to protect such citizen, then such citizen has the right to
|
||
find redress in the Federal Courts.
|
||
|
||
10. Whenever, in the Constitution, a State is prohibited from
|
||
doing anything that in the nature of the thing can be done by any
|
||
citizen of that State, then the word "state" embraces and includes
|
||
all the people of a State.
|
||
|
||
11. The 13th Amendment declares that neither slavery nor
|
||
involuntary servitude shall exist within the jurisdiction of the
|
||
United States.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
29
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
This is not a mere negation -- it is a splendid affirmation.
|
||
The duty is imposed upon the General Government by that amendment
|
||
to see to it that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
|
||
exist.
|
||
|
||
It is a question absolutely within the power of the Federal
|
||
Government, and the Federal Government is clothed with power to
|
||
make all necessary laws to enforce that amendment against States
|
||
and persons.
|
||
|
||
12. The 14th Amendment provides that all persons born or
|
||
naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction
|
||
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States
|
||
wherein they reside. This is also an affirmation. It is not a
|
||
prohibition. The moment that amendment was adopted, it became the
|
||
duty of the United States to protect the citizens recognized or
|
||
created by that amendment. We are no longer citizens of the United
|
||
States because we are citizens of a State, but we are citizens of
|
||
the United States because we have been born or have been
|
||
naturalized within the jurisdiction of the United States. It
|
||
therefore follows, that it is not only the right, but it is the
|
||
duty, of Congress, to pass all laws necessary for the protection of
|
||
citizens of the United States.
|
||
|
||
13. Congress can not shirk this responsibility by leaving
|
||
citizens of the United States to the care and keeping of the
|
||
several States.
|
||
|
||
The recent decision of the Supreme Court cuts, as with a
|
||
sword, the tie that binds the citizen to the nation. Under the old
|
||
Constitution, it was not certainly known who were citizens of the
|
||
United States. There were citizens of the States, and such citizens
|
||
looked to their several States for protection. The Federal
|
||
Government had no citizens. Patriotism did not rest on mutual
|
||
obligation. Under the 14th Amendment, we are all citizens of a
|
||
common country; and our first duty, our first obligation, our
|
||
highest allegiance, is not to the State in which we reside, but to
|
||
the Federal Government. The 14th Amendment tends to destroy State
|
||
prejudices and lays a foundation for national patriotism.
|
||
|
||
14. All statutes -- all amendments to the Constitution -- in
|
||
derogation of natural rights, should be strictly construed.
|
||
|
||
15. All statutes and amendments for the preservation of
|
||
natural rights should be liberally construed. Every court should,
|
||
by strict construction, narrow the scope of every law that
|
||
infringes upon any natural human right; and every court should, by
|
||
construction, give the broadest meaning to every statute or
|
||
constitutional provision passed or adopted for the preservation of
|
||
freedom.
|
||
|
||
16. In construing the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the
|
||
Supreme Court need not go back to decisions rendered in the days of
|
||
slavery -- when every statute was construed in favor of the
|
||
sovereignty of the State and the rights of the master. These
|
||
amendments utterly obliterated such decisions. The Supreme Court
|
||
should begin with the amendments. It need not look behind them.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
30
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
They are a part of the fundamental organic law of the nation. They
|
||
were adopted to destroy the old statutes, to obliterate the
|
||
infamous clauses in the Constitution, and to lay a new foundation
|
||
for a new nation.
|
||
|
||
17. Congress has the power to eradicate all forms and
|
||
incidents of slavery and involuntary servitude, by direct and
|
||
primary legislation binding upon States and individuals alike. And
|
||
when citizens are denied the exercise of common rights and
|
||
privileges -- when they are refused admittance to public inns and
|
||
railway cars, on an equality with white persons -- and when such
|
||
denial and refusal are based upon race and color, such citizens are
|
||
in a condition of involuntary servitude.
|
||
|
||
The Supreme Court has failed to take into consideration the
|
||
intention of the framers of these amendments. It has failed to
|
||
comprehend the spirit of the age. It has under-valued the
|
||
accomplishment of the war. It has not grasped in all their height
|
||
and depth the great amendments to the Constitution and the real
|
||
object of government. To preserve liberty is the only use for
|
||
government. There is no other excuse for legislatures, or
|
||
presidents, or courts, for statutes or decisions. Liberty is not
|
||
simply a means -- it is an end. Take from our history, our
|
||
literature, our laws, our hearts -- that word, and we are naught
|
||
but molded clay. Liberty is the one priceless jewel. It includes
|
||
and holds and is the weal and wealth of life. Liberty is the soil
|
||
and light and rain -- it is the plant and bud and flower and fruit
|
||
-- and in that sacred word lie all the seeds of progress, love and
|
||
joy.
|
||
|
||
This decision, in my judgment, is not worthy of the Court by
|
||
which it was delivered. It has given new life to the serpent of
|
||
State Sovereignty. It has breathed upon the dying embers of
|
||
ignorant hate. It has furnished food and drink, breath and blood,
|
||
to prejudices that were perishing of famine, and in the old case of
|
||
Civilization vs. Barbarism, it has given the defendant a new trial.
|
||
|
||
From this decision, John M. Harlan had the breadth of brain,
|
||
the goodness of heart, and the loyalty to logic to dissent. By the
|
||
fortress of Liberty, one sentinel remains at his post. For moral
|
||
courage I have supreme respect, and I admire that intellectual
|
||
strength that breaks the cords and chains of prejudice and damned
|
||
custom as though they were but threads woven in a spider's loom.
|
||
This judge has associated his name with freedom, and he will be
|
||
remembered as long as men are free.
|
||
|
||
We are told by the Supreme Court that:
|
||
|
||
"Slavery cannot exist without law, any more than property
|
||
and lands and goods can exist without law."
|
||
|
||
I deny that property exists by virtue of law. I take exactly
|
||
the opposite ground. It was the fact that man had property in lands
|
||
and goods, that produced laws for the protection of such property.
|
||
The Supreme Court has mistaken an effect for a cause. Laws passed
|
||
for the protection of property, sprang from the possession and
|
||
ownership of the thing to be protected. When one man enslaves
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
31
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
another, it is a violation of all justice -- a subversion of the
|
||
foundation of all law. Statutes passed for the purpose of enabling
|
||
man to enslave his fellow-man, resulted from a conspiracy entered
|
||
into by the representatives of brute force. Nothing can be more
|
||
absurd than to call such a statute, born of such a conspiracy a
|
||
law. According to the idea of the Supreme Court, man never had
|
||
property until he had passed a law upon the subject. The first man
|
||
who gathered leaves upon which to sleep, did not own them, because
|
||
no law had been passed on the leaf subject. The first man who
|
||
gathered fruit -- the first man who fashioned a club with which to
|
||
defend himself from wild beasts, according to the Supreme Court,
|
||
had no property in these things, because no laws had been passed,
|
||
and no courts had published their decisions.
|
||
|
||
So the defenders of monarchy have taken the ground that
|
||
societies were formed by contract -- as though at one time men all
|
||
lived apart, and came together by agreement and formed a
|
||
government. We might just as well say that the trees got into
|
||
groves by contract or conspiracy. Man is a social being. By living
|
||
together there grow out of the relation, certain regulations,
|
||
certain customs. These at last hardened into what we call law --
|
||
into what we call forms of government -- and people who wish to
|
||
defend the idea that we got everything from the king, say that our
|
||
fathers made a contract. Nothing can be more absurd. Men did not
|
||
agree upon a form of government and then come together; but being
|
||
together, they made rules for the regulation of conduct. Men did
|
||
not make some laws and then get some property to fit the laws, but
|
||
having property they made laws for its protection.
|
||
|
||
It is hinted by the Supreme Court that this is in some way a
|
||
question of social equality. It is claimed that social equality
|
||
cannot be enforced by law. Nobody thinks it can. This is not a
|
||
question of social equality, but of equal rights. A colored citizen
|
||
has the same right to ride upon the cars -- to be fed and lodged at
|
||
public inns, and to visit theaters, that I have. Social equality is
|
||
not involved.
|
||
|
||
The Federal soldiers who escaped from Libby and Andersonville,
|
||
and who in swamps, in storm, and darkness, were rescued and fed by
|
||
the slave, had no scruples about eating with a negro. They were
|
||
willing to sit beneath the same tree and eat with him the food he
|
||
brought. The white soldier was then willing to find rest and
|
||
slumber beneath the negro's roof. Charity has no color. It is
|
||
neither white nor black. justice and Patriotism are the same. Even
|
||
the Confederate soldier was willing to leave his wife and children
|
||
under the protection of a man whom he was fighting to enslave.
|
||
|
||
Danger does not draw these nice distinctions as to race or
|
||
color. Hunger is not proud. Famine is exceedingly democratic in the
|
||
matter of food, In the moment of peril, prejudices perish. The man
|
||
fleeing for his life does not have the same ideas about social
|
||
questions as he who sits in the Capitol, wrapped in official robes.
|
||
Position is apt to be supercilious. Power is sometimes cruel.
|
||
Prosperity is often heartless.
|
||
|
||
This cry about social equality is born of the spirit of caste
|
||
the most fiendish of all things. It is worse than slavery. Slavery
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
32
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
is at least justified by avarice -- by a desire to get something
|
||
for nothing -- by a desire to live in idleness upon the labor of
|
||
others -- but the spirit of caste is the offspring of natural
|
||
cruelty and meanness.
|
||
|
||
Social relations depend upon almost an infinite number of
|
||
influences and considerations. We have our likes and dislikes. We
|
||
choose our companions. This is a natural right. You cannot force
|
||
into my house persons whom I do not want. But there is a difference
|
||
between a public house and a private house. The one is for the
|
||
public. The private house is for the family and those they may
|
||
invite. The landlord invites the entire public, and he must serve
|
||
those who come if they are fit to be received. A railway is public,
|
||
not private. It derives its powers and its rights from the State.
|
||
It takes private land for public purposes. It is incorporated for
|
||
the good of the public, and the public must be served. The railway,
|
||
the hotel, and the theater, have a right to make a distinction
|
||
between people of good and bad manners -- between the clean and the
|
||
unclean. There are white people who have no right to be in any
|
||
place except a bath-tub, and there are colored people in the same
|
||
condition. An unclean white man should not be allowed to force
|
||
himself into a hotel, or into a railway car -- neither should the
|
||
unclean colored. What I claim is, that in public places, no
|
||
distinction should be made on account of race or color. The bad
|
||
black man should be treated like the bad white man, and the good
|
||
black man like the good white man. Social equality is not contended
|
||
for -- neither between white and white, black and black, nor
|
||
between white and black.
|
||
|
||
In all social relations we should have the utmost liberty --
|
||
but public duties should be discharged and public rights should be
|
||
recognized, without the slightest discrimination on account of race
|
||
or color. Riding in the same cars, stopping at the same inns,
|
||
sitting in the same theaters, no more involve a social question, or
|
||
social equality, than speaking the same language, reading the same
|
||
books, hearing the same music, traveling on the same highway,
|
||
eating the same food, breathing the same air, warming by the same
|
||
sun, shivering in the same cold, defending the same flag, loving
|
||
the same country, or living in the same world.
|
||
|
||
And yet, thousands of people are in deadly fear about social
|
||
equality. They imagine that riding with colored people is dangerous
|
||
-- that the chance acquaintance may lead to marriage. They wish to
|
||
be protected from such consequences by law. They dare not trust
|
||
themselves. They appeal to the Supreme Court for assistance, and
|
||
wish to be barricaded by a constitutional amendment. They are
|
||
willing that colored women shall prepare their food -- that colored
|
||
waiters shall bring it to them -- willing to ride in the same cars
|
||
with the porters and to be shown to their seats in theaters by
|
||
colored ushers -- willing to be nursed in sickness by colored
|
||
servants. They see nothing dangerous -- nothing repugnant, in any
|
||
of these relations, -- but the idea of riding in the same car,
|
||
stopping at the same hotel, fills them with fear -- fear for the
|
||
future of our race. Such people can be described only in the
|
||
language of Walt Whitman. "They are the immutable, granitic
|
||
pudding-heads of the world."
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
33
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Liberty is not a social question. Civil equality is not social
|
||
equality. We are equal only in rights. No two persons are of equal
|
||
weight, or height. There are no two leaves in all the forests of
|
||
the earth alike -- no two blades of grass -- no two grains of sand
|
||
-- no two hairs. No two any-things in the physical world are
|
||
precisely alike. Neither mental nor physical equality can be
|
||
created by law, but law recognizes the fact that all men have been
|
||
clothed with equal rights by Nature, the mother of us all.
|
||
|
||
The man who hates the black man because he is black, has the
|
||
same spirit as he who hates the poor man because he is poor, It is
|
||
the spirit of caste. The proud useless despises the honest useful.
|
||
The parasite idleness scorns the great oak of labor on which it
|
||
feeds, and that lifts it to the light.
|
||
|
||
I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under
|
||
foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or
|
||
color. They are superior who have the best heart -- the best brain.
|
||
Superiority is born of honesty, of virtue, of charity, and above
|
||
all, of the love of liberty. The superior man is the providence of
|
||
the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and
|
||
a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the
|
||
fallen. He rises by lifting others.
|
||
|
||
In this country all rights must be preserved, all wrongs
|
||
redressed, through the ballot. The colored man has in his
|
||
possession, in his care, a part of the sovereign power of the
|
||
Republic. At the ballot-box he is the equal of judges and senators,
|
||
and presidents, and his vote, when counted, is the equal of any
|
||
other. He must use this sovereign power for his own protection, and
|
||
for the preservation of his children. The ballot is his sword and
|
||
shield. It is his political providence. It is the rock on which he
|
||
stands, the column against which he leans. He should vote for no
|
||
man who does not believe in equal rights for all -- in the same
|
||
privileges and immunities for all citizens, irrespective of race or
|
||
color.
|
||
|
||
He should not be misled by party cries, or by vague promises
|
||
in political platforms. He should vote for the men, for the party,
|
||
that will protect him; for congressmen who believe in liberty, for
|
||
judges who worship justice -- whose brains are not tangled by
|
||
technicalities, and whose hearts are not petrified by precedents;
|
||
and for presidents who will protect the blackest citizen from the
|
||
tyranny of the whitest State. As you cannot trust the word of some
|
||
white people, and as some black people do not always tell the
|
||
truth, you must compel all candidates to put their principles in
|
||
black and white.
|
||
|
||
Of one thing you can rest assured: The best white people are
|
||
your friends. The humane, the civilized, the just, the most
|
||
intelligent, the grandest, are on your side. The sympathies of the
|
||
noblest are with you. Your enemies are also the enemies of liberty,
|
||
of progress and of justice. The white men who make the white race
|
||
honorable believe in equal rights for you. The noblest living are,
|
||
the noblest dead were, your friends. I ask you to stand with your
|
||
friends.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
34
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
Do not hold the Republican party responsible for this
|
||
decision, unless the Republican party endorses it. Had the question
|
||
been submitted to that party, it would have been decided exactly
|
||
the other way -- at least a hundred to one. That party gave you the
|
||
13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. They were given in good faith.
|
||
These amendments put you on a constitutional and political equality
|
||
with white men. That they have been narrowed in their application
|
||
by the Supreme Court, is not the fault of the Republican party. Let
|
||
us wait and see what the Republican party will do. That party has
|
||
a strange history, and in that history is a mingling of cowardice
|
||
and courage. The army of progress always becomes fearful after
|
||
victory, and courageous after defeat. It has been the custom for
|
||
principle to apologize to prejudice. The Proclamation of
|
||
Emancipation gave liberty only to slaves beyond our lines -- those
|
||
beneath our flag were left to wear their chains. We said to the
|
||
Southern States: "Lay down your arms, and you shall keep your
|
||
slaves." We tried to buy peace at the expense of the negro. We
|
||
offered to sacrifice the manhood of the North, and the natural
|
||
rights of the colored man, upon the altar of the Union. The
|
||
rejection of that offer saved us from infamy. At one time we
|
||
refused to allow the loyal black man to come within our lines. We
|
||
would meet him at the outposts, receive his information, and drive
|
||
him back to chain and lash. The Government publicly proclaimed that
|
||
the war was waged to save the Union, with slavery. We were afraid
|
||
to claim that the negro was a man -- afraid to admit that he was
|
||
property -- and so we called him "contraband." We hesitated to
|
||
allow the negro to fight for his own freedom -- hesitated to let
|
||
him wear the uniform of the nation while he battled for the
|
||
supremacy of its flag.
|
||
|
||
These are some of the inconsistencies of the past. In spite of
|
||
them we advanced. We were educated by events, and at last we
|
||
clearly saw that slavery was rebellion, that the "institution" had
|
||
borne its natural fruit -- civil war; that the entire country was
|
||
responsible for slavery, and that slavery was responsible for
|
||
rebellion. We declared that slavery should be extirpated from the
|
||
Republic. The great armies led by the greatest commander of the
|
||
modern world, shattered, crushed and demolished the Rebellion. The
|
||
North grew grand. The people became sublime. The three sacred
|
||
amendments were adopted. The Republic was free.
|
||
|
||
Then came a period of hesitation, apology and fear. The
|
||
colored citizen was left to his fate. For years the Federal arm,
|
||
palsied by policy, was powerless to protect; and this period of
|
||
fear, of hesitation, of apology, of lack of confidence in the
|
||
right, has borne its natural fruit -- this decision of the Supreme
|
||
Court.
|
||
|
||
But it is not for me to give you advice. Your conduct has been
|
||
above all praise. You have been as patient as the earth beneath, as
|
||
the stars above. You have been law-abiding and industrious. You
|
||
have not offensively asserted your rights, or offensively borne
|
||
your wrongs. You have been modest and forgiving. You have returned
|
||
good for evil. When I remember that the ancestors of my race were
|
||
in universities and colleges and common schools while you and your
|
||
fathers were on the auction-block, in the slave-pen, or in the
|
||
field beneath the cruel lash, in States where reading and writing
|
||
were crimes, I am astonished at the progress you have made.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
35
|
||
|
||
CIVIL RIGHTS.
|
||
|
||
All that I -- all that any reasonable man -- can ask is, that
|
||
you continue doing as you have done. Above all things -- educate
|
||
your children -- strive to make yourselves independent -- work for
|
||
homes -- work for yourselves -- and wherever it is possible become
|
||
the masters of yourselves.
|
||
|
||
Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see your little
|
||
children with books under their arms, going and coming from school.
|
||
|
||
it is very easy to see why colored people should hate us, but
|
||
why we should hate them is beyond my comprehension. They never sold
|
||
our wives. They never robbed our cradles. They never scarred our
|
||
backs. They never pursued us with bloodhounds. They never branded
|
||
our flesh.
|
||
|
||
It has been said that it is hard to forgive a man to whom we
|
||
have done a great injury. I can conceive of no other reason why we
|
||
should hate the colored people. To us they are a standing reproach.
|
||
Their history is our shame. Their virtues seem to enrage some white
|
||
people -- their patience to provoke, and their forgiveness to
|
||
insult. Turn the tables -- change places -- and with what
|
||
fierceness, with what ferocity, with what insane and passionate
|
||
intensity we would hate them!
|
||
|
||
The colored people do not ask for revenge -- they simply ask
|
||
for justice. They are willing to forget the past -- willing to hide
|
||
their scars -- anxious to bury the broken chains, and to forget the
|
||
miseries and hardships, the tears and agonies, of two hundred
|
||
years.
|
||
|
||
The old issues are again upon us. Is this a Nation? Have all
|
||
citizens of the United States equal rights, without regard to race
|
||
or color? Is it the duty of the General Government to protect its
|
||
citizens? Can the Federal arm be palsied by the action or non-
|
||
action of a State?
|
||
|
||
Another opportunity is given for the people of this country to
|
||
take sides. According to my belief, the supreme thing for every man
|
||
to do is to be absolutely true to himself. All consequences --
|
||
whether rewards or punishments, whether honor and power, or
|
||
disgrace and poverty, are as dreams undreamt. I have made my
|
||
choice. I have taken my stand. Where my brain and heart go, there
|
||
I will publicly and openly walk. Doing this, is my highest
|
||
conception of duty. Being allowed to do this, is liberty.
|
||
|
||
If this is not now a free Government; if citizens cannot now
|
||
be protected, regardless of race or color; if the three sacred
|
||
amendments have been undermined by the Supreme Court -- we must
|
||
have another; and if that fails, then another; and we must neither
|
||
stop, nor pause, until the Constitution shall become a perfect
|
||
shield for every right, of every human being, beneath our flag.
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
||
|
||
**** ****
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
36
|
||
|