stand. Kentucky rebukes Massachusetts! I am waiting with some
impatience--impatient because I anticipate a pleasure--for his
dissenting opinion. Only a little while ago Justice Harlan took
a very noble stand on the Virginia Coupon cases, in which was
involved the right of a State to repudiate its debts. Now he has
taken a stand in favor of the civil rights of the colored man; and
in both instances I think he is right.

This decision may, after all, help the Republican party. A decision
of the Supreme Court aroused the indignation of the entire North,
and I hope the present decision will have a like effect. The good
people of this country will not be satisfied until every man beneath
the flag, without the slightest respect to his complexion, stands
on a perfect equality before the law with every other. Any government
that makes a distinction on account of color, is a disgrace to the
age in which we live. The idea that a man like Frederick Douglass
can be denied entrance to a car, that the doors of a hotel can be
shut in his face; that he may be prevented from entering a theatre;
the idea that there shall be some ignominious corner into which
such a man can be thrown simply by a decision of the Supreme Court!
This idea is simply absurd.

_Question_. What remains to be done now, and who is going to do it?

_Answer_. For a good while people have been saying that the
Republican party has outlived its usefulness; that there is very
little difference now between the parties; that there is hardly
enough left to talk about. This decision opens the whole question.
This decision says to the Republican party, "Your mission is not
yet ended. This is not a free country. Our flag does not protect
the rights of a human being." This decision is the tap of a drum.
The old veterans will fall into line. This decision gives the
issue for the next campaign, and it may be that the Supreme Court
has builded wiser than it knew. This is a greater question than
the tariff or free trade. It is a question of freedom, of human
rights, of the sacredness of humanity.

The real Americans, the real believers in Liberty, will give three
cheers for Judge Harlan.

One word more. The Government is bound to protect its citizens,
not only when they are away from home, but when they are under the
flag. In time of war the Government has a right to draft any
citizen; to put that citizen in the line of battle, and compel him
to fight fo