shall also pay a fine of five hundred dollars; and, in every case in which any such solicitor shall fail in his duty, as herein prescribed, the Attorney-General shall make the most effective prosecution possible against him on the behalf of the State; and neither any solicitor nor the Attorney-General shall settle or enter a nol. pros. in any case arising under this act, except by the consent of the court.

Intermarriage of Races in Georgia

McPherson, History of Reconstruction, p. 474. Decision of the supreme court of Georgia.

[1869]

HAVE white persons and persons of color the right under the constitution and laws of Georgia, to intermarry, and live together in this State as husband and wife? . . The Code of Georgia, as adopted by the new constitution, section 1707, forever prohibits the marriage relation between the two races, and declares all such marriages null and void. . . It is our duty to declare what the law is, not to make law. . . I do not hesitate to say that it was dictated by wise statesmanship, and has a broad and solid foundation in enlightened policy, sustained by sound reason and common sense. The amalgamation of the races is not only unnatural, but is always produc tive of deplorable results. Our daily observation shows us that the offspring of these unnatural connections are generally sickly and effeminate, and that they are inferior in physical development and strength to the full blood of either race...

Government has full power to regulate civil and political rights, and to give to each citizen of the State . . equal civil and equal political rights. . . But government has no power to regulate social status. Before the laws the Code of Georgia makes all citizens equal, without regard to race or color; but it does not create, nor does any law of the State attempt to enforce moral or social equality between the different races... Such equality does not in fact exist and never can. The God of nature made it otherwise, and no human law can produce it, and no human tribunal can enforce it. There are gradations and classes throughout the universe. From the tallest arch

angel in heaven down to the meanest reptile on earth moral and social inequalities exist, and must continue to exist throughout all eternity.

While the great mass of the conquering people . . have maintained in power those who demand that the people of the States lately in rebellion shall accord to the colored race equality of civil rights, including the ballot, with the same protection under the law which is offered the white race, they have neither required of us the practice of miscegenation, nor have they claimed for the colored race social equality with the white race. . . We have neither authorized nor legalized the marriage relation between the races, nor have we enacted laws or placed it in the power of the legislature hereafter to make laws regarding the social status, so as to compel our people to meet the colored race on terms of social equality. Such a state of things could never be desired by the thoughtful and reflecting portion of either race. It could never promote peace, quiet, or social order in any State or community.

We are of the opinion that the section of the Code which forbids intermarriage between the races is neither inconsistent with, nor is it repealed by, the section of the constitution. now under consideration. It therefore stands upon the statutebook of the State forever prohibiting all such marriages, and declaring them to be null and void.

"Marrying a 'Nigger' School Marm"

Morgan, Yazoo, or On the Picket Line of Freedom, p. 342 et seq. Extracts from Morgan's account of a conversation with his brother. Morgan was sheriff of Yazoo County, Mississippi, after he had killed his predecessor. The note by Gerrit Smith seems to be of later date. [1873]

[To his brother] God willing, I am going to marry a 'Nigger' school Marm. . .

She is a wonderful creature, that girl of mine; never has been sick a day in her life! Never has taken a dose of any kind of medicine! Her breath is as pure and sweet as if it came off a bed of spring violets.

The first time I saw Carrie [the negro teacher] I lost my

head, banged if I didn't. It happened in this way: I was at Jackson on some business or other connected with the elec tion. General Copeland invited me to visit that school with him; said he had something to show me better for the eyes than fine gold; ay, than many pearls. . . Advancing down the aisle to greet us, with the simple grace of an honest, blushing country girl, yet with all the dignity of a veritable queen, as I fancied, she welcomed us with a smile. . .

The battle was fought in this country when the rebellion collapsed at Appomattox. Garrison, Phillips, Lucretia Mott, Gerrit Smith, Sumner, and a small army of heroic souls have won all the honors. There is now no law in Mississippi standing between my betrothed and me. There are none now to forbid the banns. African slavery on this continent is dead. . .

More than a month ago I introduced into the Senate a bill repealing all the laws upon that subject, and five days afterward that bill, having passed both houses, was approved by the Governor.

Of late the old enemy have sort o' been.. getting very kind of sweet on me. They were slower getting to it in Yazoo than at certain points - where Miss lives, for example. The lady in question is one of the most brilliant and accom plished I ever met, a splendid woman, no mistake about that; but then-oh, well, they ar'n't of our kind by a long shot. That's all there is to it, and when I saw that my visits to her father's house were being misconstrued by the public, I got Carrie to accompany me to the House of Representatives one day during a recess of the Senate, and caused announcement to be made of our intended marriage. . .

COLONEL MORGAN:

Peterboro', Nov. 15.

My Dear Sir: In the midst of my preparations for going in the morning to the National Historical Society Convention at Syracuse, I received your deeply interesting and thrice welcome letter. I must not only acknowledge the receipt of it,

God

though it will be only in brief lines that I can do so. be praised for bringing your enemies to be at peace with you! I am rejoiced to learn that kindness is shown you where you expected to have encountered hatred. You chose a sweet, loving-hearted girl for your wife, and she chose you for her husband. The result is a happy pair. But this is not the most important result. The most is its contributing largely to break down the unnatural and unchristian barriers between races. You and your dear wife have in this respect set a useful example before the world. I am happy to learn through you that your wife is "as well as usual." Mrs. Smith joins me in my regards to you. Your friend,

Gerrit Smith.

A Mixed Marriage at Port Gibson

Mississippi Election of 1875, p. 159. Two accounts, by whites.

[1875]

[1] IN 1874 . . a saddle-colored member of the legislature, named Haskins Smith, married a young white girl named Ellen Smith, residing in Port Gibson. She ran off with him and was married, I think in Vicksburg. There was, of course, a good deal of talk, particularly among the lower class of people, about this thing of his marrying that girl. It created a good deal of excitement among them, but I think the more sensible people of the community concurred in the idea, that if she wanted to marry him it was her business; but among the riffraff of the population there was a great deal of talk about injuring him in some way. . .

[2] The father of the girl was very much excited, and the mother has never recovered from the shock she received at the time. The father in that exasperated state of feeling proposed to kill the negro whenever he returned. He was a very good negro, and held in very good esteem by the white people. The negroes here, Haskins's friends, seeing him with a shot-gun, gathered around his hotel en masse. self the excited crowds that gathered there from day to day. They were absent during all this time the man and woman

I saw my

who were married. The negroes made a great many threats, according to hearsay, but we paid no attention to them. On Sunday, about one week after the occurrence, the negro was brought back to the place by prominent negro leaders, among them the black coroner of our town, who is now in this jail, the leader of a gang which has been sent to the penitentiary for burglary. They went down with carriages to bring the negro back. The negro protested against it, saying he had outraged the feelings of the family, and preferred to remain where he was; but they took him by force and brought him into the village on a quiet Sunday with four or five young men armed, and they paraded our streets up and down, with this negro who had offended the feelings of this family in their midst; and then, not content with this, they followed our young ladies, and went to our graveyard where our parents are buried, and trod all around there, and marched back.

Sumner's Views on Equality

Annual Cyclopedia, 1871, p. 753. Letter in regard to colored con vention to be held in South Carolina.

[1871]

IN the first place, you must at all times insist upon your rights, and here I mean not only those already accorded, but others still denied, all of which are contained in equality before the law. Wherever the law supplies a rule, there you must insist upon equal rights. How much remains to be obtained you know too well in the experience of life. Can a respectable colored citizen travel on steamboats or railways, or public conveyances generally, without insult on account of color? Let Lieutenant-Governor Dunn, of Louisiana, describe his journey from New Orleans to Washington. Shut out from proper accommodations in the cars, the doors of the Senate Chamber opened to him, and there he found the equality a railroad conductor had denied. Let our excellent friend, Frederick Douglass, relate his melancholy experience, when, within sight of the executive mansion, he was thrust back from the dinner-table where his brother commissioners were already seated... I might ask the same question with regard to