Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1883 — VIEWS OF COLORED LEADERS. [ARTICLE]

VIEWS OF COLORED LEADERS.

FRED DOUGLAS. Fred Douglas, when asked what he thought of the decision, said: “It Is disheartening, and I regard it as a 6tep backward. The result will be mischievous. At the close of the war, and in view of the services rendered by colored mon, there was a disposition on the part of the country to conoede to them complete citizenship and equal civil rights in tb© use of all public conveyances and Institutions. I regard this decision as a part of the general reaction naturally following increased friendship between the North und South, which comes of the dying out of the old controversy on the subject of slavery. Nearly all the concessions tho colored people have received have been the result of the antagonism of tho two sections. I do not despair, however, of the ultimate return of a liberal spirit toward the colored people. I think the decision confounds social with civil rights. Social equality does not result from riding on the same car with a man or buying goods at the same store. The decision places the American people far in the rear of the civilized nations of Europe. Tho deqlsion Is contrary to tho Declaration of Independence, the spirit of Christianity, the spirit of the age, and in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. It tends to weaken the spirit of patriotism which the nation may need in.some hour of peril.” JOHN M. LANGSTON. Prof. John M. Langston, Minister to Hnyti, the man who drew, at tho request of Charles Sumner, the act of which the two sectionshave been declared unconstitutional, says: “I am surprised and deeply disappointed at the decision, but, in fact, the Civil Rights act gave us Ho rights which we did not already have under the Fourteenth amendment. We have \yith or without tho act equal rights In this country, and the courts of the Statesshould give them to us. If they domot, then Congress has power under the amenJnnents to legislate so that they will bo compelled to do so. The result, therefor, will be simply to bring the matter before Congress again.” RICHARD T. GREENER. Richard T. Greener, the well-known colored lawyer, speaking of the decision, said: “It is the most startling decision since the Infamous dictum of Chief Justice Taney. I myself would much rather be deprived of my pqlitical rights than my social ones. I canlive without suffrage, I can exist without office, but I want to have the privilege of traveling from New York to. California without fear of being put off a car or denied food and; shelter because I have a trace of negro blood In my veins. Tho civil rights granted by that law are not oniy constitutional, but In my Judgment antedate the constitution.”