754 



r.\ in-: i STATES. 



mention* the negro by speaking of bis color and his 

 slavery. But it is just an true that each of the other 

 article* wa> addressed to the grievances of that race, 

 and designed to remedy them as the fifteenth. We 

 do not say that no one else but the negro can share 

 in this protection. Both the language and spirit of 

 these articles are to have their fair and just weight 

 in any question of construction. Undoubtedly, while 

 negro slavery alone was in the mind of the Congress 

 which proposed the thirteenth article, it forbids any 

 other kind of slavery, now or hereafter. If Mexican 

 peonage, or the Chinese cooly labor system, shall 

 develop slavery of the Mexican or Chinese race 

 within our territory, this amendment may safely be 

 trusted to make it void. And so if other rights are 

 assailed bv the States, which properly and necessa- 

 rily fall within the protection of these articles, that 

 protection will apply though the party interested 

 may not be of African descent. But what we do say 

 and what we wish to be understood is, that in any 

 fair and just construction of any section or phrase of 

 these amendments, it is necessary to look to the 

 purpose which we have said was the pervading spirit 

 of them all, the evil which they were designed to 

 remedy, and the process of continued addition to 

 the Constitution, until that purpose was supposed 

 to be accomplished as far as constitutional law can 

 accomplish it. 



The minority of the court took the ground 

 that this act was, of itself, beyond the police 

 powers of the Legislature, and therefore void, 

 and also that it was void under the fourteenth 

 amendment. This amendment, they said, makes 

 it essential to the validity of the legislation of 

 every State that the equality of right among 

 citizens in the pursuit of ordinary vocations 

 of life should bo respected, and that all grants 

 of exclusive privileges like the one question, 

 in contravention of this equality, are against 

 common right, and void. 



A decision was also rendered in the ease of 

 Myra Hradwell against the State of Illinois. 

 The plaintiff in error was refused a license to 

 practise law by tlie Supremo Court of Illinois 

 on the sole ground that she was a woman, ami 

 appealed from the decision to the Supreme 

 Court of the Unit <! States. This court re- 

 fused to set aside the decision of the Illinois 

 court npon the ground that the right to be ad- 

 mitted to practise law in the limits of a 8 

 is not among the class of rights belonging to 

 riti/.cns of the United States, which the States 

 are forbidden, by the fourteenth amendment, 

 to abridge. The court held that the right to 

 practise law does not depend upon citizenship 

 at all, citing the fuct that many distinguished 

 lawyers have been admitted to practise, both 

 in State and Federal courts, who were not citi- 

 zens of the United States, or of any State. 

 Hut if the claim of citizenship had any thing 

 to do with the matter, the United States had 

 only jurisdiction in regard to its own courts, 

 and the separate States have full jurisdiction 

 over the right to admission to their courts. 

 The court therefore held that it conM not in- 

 terfere with the decision of the Supreme 

 Court of Illinois, bat ntterod no opinion as to 

 the right of women to practise in United States 

 wort*, 



A few convention?, claiming a national im- 

 portance, were held during the year, such as 



the Convention of Colored Citizens, at Wash- 

 ington; and the Convention to |>n>: 

 ligious Amendment of the Constitution ol" the 

 United States, at New York. 



One of the most important subjects, how- 

 ever, which occupied the public attention. 

 that of cheap transportation, chiefly from the 

 \\ cst to the East. The proceedings of conven- 

 tions assembled to consider this subject in the 

 several Western States will be found under the 

 head of those States respectively; and also 

 under the title " Patrons of Husbandry." The 

 Convention of the Governors of the Southern 

 States, which assembled at Atlanta. Georgia, 

 is likewise noticed in the article on that >- 

 The object of this convention wa- to consider a 

 project for connecting, by an inland route, the 

 waters of the Mississippi with the Atlantic 

 Ocean. The Atlantic & (Ireat Western Ca- 

 nal Company, in whose interest this conven- 

 tion was more particularly held, propose to 

 connect by canal and slack-water navigation 

 the Coosa, Etowah, Ocmulgee, and Tenn. 

 Rivers with the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, 

 Ga. The can.nl will commence at Guntersville, 

 the most southern point reached by the Ten- 

 nessee River, thence to the Coosa, thirty miles 

 distant, which it enters, and follows to Rome, 

 Ga., up to which point the Coosa River is 

 navigable tor large steamboats at all seasons of 

 the year. From Rome the cnnal follows the 

 Etowah River to its nearest point of contact 

 with the Ocmulgee. and thence down the latter 

 stream to navigable water and the Atlantic 

 Ocean. This route has been several times sur- 

 veyed, and has been declared entirely (V 

 by members of the 1'nited States Engineer 

 Cor;is. The project was also favorably re- 

 ported npon during the session of Congress of 

 1872-7:!. A report from the House Committee 

 on Commerce says: " By this means the entire 

 navigable waters of tin- St-itcs of Alabama, 

 Eastern Mississippi, and West I-'lorida, will bo 

 connected with the vast inland sea coinpriscd 

 in the term 'Mississippi Kivcr and its tributa- 

 ries;' also the navigable waters of the. States 

 of South Carolina. Georgia, Florida, find a p:i;-t. 

 of North Carolina, embracing about />.""<> 

 miles of water easily navigated by vessels of 

 light draft, and upon canals. The- 

 would penetrate the streams and estn. 

 above referred to, into almost .very portion of 

 these six States States that produce the ma- 

 jor portion of the cotton raised npon this con- 

 tinent," 



. A National Cheap Transportation Associa- 

 tion was organized in New York on May (itb. 

 Delegates were present from many States utid 

 local associations. The views entertained by 

 the convention are expressed in the following 

 extracts from the platform adopted : 



Wfirrvu, The (rrcat material want of the nation 

 to-day is relief from the present rates of transit upon 

 American pmdnc-ts: tlu'rcfore 



Rttnlrf.1, 1, That the duty of the hour, and the mis- 

 sion of tliis Association, is to obtain t> 

 and the several State Legislatures such legislation aa 



