custom, whose yoke it is alike hard to break and wearisome to bear.
It is also their opinion that in the recent civil-rights decisions false refinement, obscurity, and injustice are inseparable companions; that the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed for the protection of the civil rights of the colored citizen, has been interpreted against him by a construction too favorable to those who are inclined to oppose his further progress and development; and that under the rulings of these decisions certain public servants and the monopolistic labor class practically exercise the authority of making what rules and regulations they may see fit. They submit that no racial prejudice or sociological argument should legalize customs which, besides being subversive of the Constitution as amended, are in their very nature high treason against humanity and civilization; that law, which is founded solely upon principles of reason and justice, should in no way be subject to a bias which inclines its ministers to favor the perpetuation of the ancient rites of the age of slavery which sooner or later must be buried in the wrecks of time; and that civil rights rest upon the foundation of mutual equity and utility, of which the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment is declaratory as the measure of American public justice. Inasmuch as they are subject to the burdens of the government, they respectfully urge that they have the right to enjoy the benefits of all the provisions of its laws.
These addressers desire to raise up a perpetual monitor in the minds of all peoples and races against any encroachment or innovation upon the precepts of the Fourteenth Amendment. They feel that, as it is the duty, it should also be the glory, of the American people to cherish, and protect against all attacks, the doctrine of the "Equality of Rights by Due Process of Law," a fundamental principle which ought to be constantly and solemnly asserted and claimed by all Americans.
They submit that the decision in Hall and DeCuir, in the eyes of all men of candor and sense, confessedly operates as an overruling of this sacred provision of the Fourteenth Amendment; that the separate opinion in that cause exhibits the hypochondriac alarm and valetudinary longevity of race-prejudice.
