Equality Of Rights In Common Schools

In the ctnu-se of the debate on Senator Suinner's "perfect equaïity bcforo tho luw " amcndment to tlie Amnesty bill, iu which he made a condition of amnesty tho social oq.uality of the races and the ion, as a " right" to be erfforeed by Federal courts, of negroos to societiès, churchos, marriage, schools, te., -witn whites, Senator Thurman, the ie Senator from Ohio, exposod the fallacy of such a claim as a right in the following puugent l.uguge : " Mr. President, I put it to any Senator, whure is there in the Constitution of the United States any such right guaran - teod to a citizen as that ho shall go into a common school in company with every other child that gees to that commoir school 'i Where is there any provisión in the Constitution that ives him a right to sit upon a jury in a State court f " Mr. Êdnmnds - " Do I undorstand my friond to wish that question answereÜ now 't " Mr. Thurman- " I amwiïUng ter kake the answer now." -M r. Edmunds- " Very well ; T think I can give the answer. The Constitution of the United States guáranteos oquality in civil rights, and the equal protection of luw ; and when the law sets up a common school, which is the creaturo of the law, there cannot be equality of right when the law of the State, if yott pleasé, declares that a man of one color of hair or of skin may send his children and tho man of another color of hair niay not sond his." Mr. Thurman - "Now, to what provisión of the Constitution does the Senator refer ? " Mr. Eumúnds"Well, we will takothe fourteenth amendraeat, which says theru shall beequal protection." Mr. Thurman- "Well, I am wilMrigtd oonsider that at once. The substance cf the Seuator's pontion is siiuply this: that although ii State himv give to every child in it equal advantaés ot' cducation, it shall have no powor of regulation over its schools. Lot me turn tho argument of the Senator. Is not a female child n citizen ? Is shj not eatitled to equal rights? Why, then, do you allow your school directors to Repárate )r früni li Mtiiool t'or the maler Why do you not fovce tbem into the same school V Why do you allow the State to separate tho sexes in the schools if every school that is : set up and stipported by public nioiwy i : '-i'ily 'thrown open to every eitizeri ot' thu Unitod States? Will the ttgjlW say that all the laws of tlie Sttites pKviiling tor a división of tlie schools by .re uneonstitutional ml infringo the fourteonth amendment 't Ho cannot say that ; and if he cannot say that, his argument falls to the ground. Does not the separation exist by virtuo of the poffer of regulation, which Imlong3 to fhe State 'i AU that can bo cliümed is this; that in regard to schools supportod by tho public inoney, that monoy shall be Sö applied as that each citizen shall httvú m ecjual aiivantago fiom its application. Therefore, preserving that equality, thu State in the exercise of its power of i;gulation maj apply a part of it to support a school for boys, a part of it to support a school for girls, a part of it to support a school f jr white childron, a part of it to support a school for colored children. Tnat is not denying thom the equal pro1tection of tho laws in any sonso whato over. In nowise is it denying thcin ike' equal pi'otection of tho laws. In nosoiise is it denying their eiuality bofore the law. " This brings mo to consider anothcï point, which 1 had intyndeU to speak of a liUlü further on in tUo cour.su of my rcuiarks; but I might as v.:il Spéftk of it now, and that is that tho amendment of thu Senator iïoni Massachusetts. instead of being an amendment in the interest of liberty, is an ainendinent in the interest of despotism. It is a which, if enacted into law, will bo the hiost despotic provisión porhaps to be' found oa this globe. " Vhat is the true idea of civil Hberíy ? lt is simply that evcry cihwri sirall have a right to do what to him soemeth good, so fax as he can do so without infringing on tho rights of othors; or endangering the peacu of society or tho existence' or just powers of tho government, The government has no right to interfere with his liberty unless it is noecssary in order to protect othcr peoplo, or to protect itsulf. Just so lar as it oversteps that boundary, so fai does it beuome a tyrant. And now, that being the case, what should be thu liberty of a citizenin regard to church, or school, or place of amusement 'i I say that it is in the interest of liberty that if any number of persons in the land shall see fit to establish a theater or a place of public amusement for a particular class. thuy shall havo the right to do it, ard you abridge and rostrain their liberty u you take froin thom that right. It is nofc necessary to deny tliem the liberty to choose their owq associatcs in places of public ainu ement, in tho church, or in the school. It is not necessary to the publio safety or to the preservation of tha' rights of others that that privilege shonlá bo denied or abridged. lío we uot exercise it every day ï " The Senator from Hassachusetts says lio does not want to interioro with the social condition of the poople ; that this is no attempt to foree colored people into the social circlo. Vhy, sir, aiu uil the social circles confined to men's own hearthstones? Aro those the only. social circles of the country? Are notyoar clttb-hoüses social institutions? and does not cvery club regúlate for itself whom it will admit ? l'here is in the City of" New York, I bolieve, a club of fat mi;n, ahd no man is allowed to be a membei oi' that club unless he weighs three hundred pounds. [Laughter.] Is that an infringement cf tho rights and privileges 'of lean men 'i Must Congress pass a law to forcé the lean men on those fat fellows in the social intercourse of their club, and in the enjoyment of uUits rights, privileges and immunities 'y " [Laughter. J Mr. Morton - "Can we not say that men shall not b cxcluded on tüié ground of colur '; " Mr. Thurman - "If the 'ulci'od men should seo íit to establish a club of blaifef:it men, or fat black mon - whichever is the proper exprsssion --! do nut seo that they ought to be dííjSrivcd of tho privilege of doing i t. ':y, more, sir, if tfie red-headtd men in the City of Washington should choose to forin a n!?i) of redheaded men, and sny that nobodj' but red-hended men should be mombers of that club, 1 think they ought to havo that privilegp, even il they nwa to get a license, or if they have to gét a charter of incorporation to preserve their property. If whito men of this country sgb íit to form a MaBonic or Odd Fellows' lodge, or any othor mutual benevolent society, and say that nobody but white men shall belong to it ; if thoy see fit to chooso their own associates ;tlid beneficiaries in these1 charitable iiisütutions, supportedby their own means, and' in which eontributions are made by eaeh menibór for tho ail of any olie of tho brotherhood who may fall into distress, I do not see why thoy should bo deprived of the right to do so. I do not seo why thoy should not be allowed to limit their charity to those whom tb.ey niay see fit to make objècta of it. "SojSir, If Maokjpeojie oí iviiite peolle Beo fit to establish a church, and to say that that is a churoh for white pooplo or black pooplo alone - although I agree that if there is any placo on the face "f God's globe in whitli thero ought to bo equality, it is in a ohitích where all aro equal béfore their Makur - yet if thoy seo lit to do bo I am not in favor of abridginf; tln'ir liberty. And so, út, if the supremo power in a Stafp, in tho exercise of a wiso jiulginent and discretiou, and for Uta Interest of eduoatioo and of its youtli, hoos fit to make a regulation that white childron shall bo in ono school and colored children in another, I am not in favoi of depriving them of that right or denying; tnom that liberty. " Vhilo I am 011 this subject lot me say furt.hor, that of all insidious blows that were evor aiined at tho poor whito peoplo of this country tliis proposition to forco negroos into tho common schools in association with tho whitos is exactly tho most deadly and inimicaï. My fricad from Dolawaro (Ir. Saulsbury) reforred to this in well-chosen and wcll-spokon words the other óay. Why, sir, how is it now? You havo your common schools. My State contributes $9,OOOr,000 a year to the support of common schools. Her peoplo aro taxed $9,000,000 evory year for the support of couinion schools, nearly twico as much the people of any other State in Union, unless it may M N'cuYork ; and yet she has alwuj's had thp schools for -whitos separate from the schools for tho blacks, notwithstanding which tho colored people of Ohio liavo iad thcir full share of the educational advantages in that State. And now, sir, mark it, although that State contributed #9,000,000 to tito support of common schools, practically what do we see ? We see many men of Tvealth sendin their childreu from their homes, sending them hundreds of miles, sorco of them a thoueand miles or more, to be educated at private seminaries ; but the poor man must send his child to the common school, or it must gO' without education. Whon, therefore, you shall fi)rce colored children into the cominou schools, you will not forco them into an association with the children. oL the riuh (the childron of the rich will not bo there), but you will force them into social intercourse with. tho ohildren of tho poor whitos ; and the tendency of your la-w, iastead of bi'ing to érate the oolored race to the level oí tho white, will bo to pull down the poor whito child to the levol of tlio black. That is the wholo tendency of tho thing. Inslead of elevating tho negro, it is to depress the whito. Tho rich man's child goes to sonio seminary of learning supported by wealth and the contributions of the rich ; he assoeiatos with no colored child. He MTS, in the language of tho Senator frora Massaehusetts, that there is no such. thing as oquality in the social circle bstwvon tiio two racos ; that the law has nothing to do with. that ; he stands on that ; and although thu.Declaration of Independence, on which the Senator relies, iuake3 no distinotion between thu social circle and. an.y othor circle,. yot the child repudiates the Dfeclaration so far as that is concernod, and says ho will not havo social intercourse as an equal with the colored child. That is what the rich man's child says ; but the poor man's child must havo that social equality thrust upon hiin, or ho must go without education. I say in. the interest of schools, of whicb, I bave been a supporter ever tüice I had a vote, of whioh I hav been more thaw o, supporter,, for I served six years in the hutublo office of a school director,, and performed much and onerous labe in tht office- I say from experience, first, that th?ro is 110 nceessity for this adnrixture in tho schools ; and, in tho second place, that the worst onciiiy of tho cominon school systom could not deviso a worso thrust at it than this very nmendment of the Senator from Massaehusetts." --44 - ►►- ■