The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921

Journal of Negro History,
Volume 6, 1921, by Various

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Title: The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921
Author: Various
Release Date: July 26, 2007 [EBook #22149]
Language: English
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THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
Volume VI
1921
Table of Contents
Vol VI--January, 1921--No. 1
Fifty Years of Negro Citizenship C. G. WOODSON Remy Ollier,
Mauritian Journalist and Patriot CHARLES H. WESLEY A Negro
Colonization Project in Mexico J. FRED RIPPY Documents James
Madison's Attitude toward the Negro Advice Given Negroes a Century
Ago Some Undistinguished Negroes Book Reviews Notes Proceedings
of Annual Meeting
Vol VI--April, 1921--No. 2
Making West Virginia a Free State ALRUTHEUS A. TAYLOR
Canadian Negroes and the John Brown Raid FRED LANDON Negro
and Spanish Pioneer in New World J. FRED RIPPY Economic
Condition of Negroes of New York ARNETT G. LINDSAY
Documents The Appeal of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies Correspondence Book Reviews Notes
Vol VI--July, 1921--No. 3
The Material Culture of Ancient Nigeria WILLIAM LEO
HANSBERRY The Negro in British South Africa D. A. LANE, JR.
Baptism of Slaves in Prince Edward Island WILLIAM RENWICK

RIDDELL Documents Book Reviews Notes
Vol VI--October, 1921--No. 4
The Negro Migration of 1916-1918 HENDERSON H. DONALD Book
Reviews Notes

THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY
VOL. VI--JANUARY, 1921--NO. 1

FIFTY YEARS OF NEGRO CITIZENSHIP AS QUALIFIED BY THE
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
THE HISTORIC BACKGROUND
The citizenship of the Negro in this country is a fiction. The
Constitution of the United States guarantees to him every right
vouchsafed to any individual by the most liberal democracy on the face
of the earth, but despite the unusual powers of the Federal Government
this agent of the body politic has studiously evaded the duty of
safeguarding the rights of the Negro. The Constitution confers upon
Congress the power to declare war and make peace, to lay and collect
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to coin money, to regulate
commerce, and the like; and further empowers Congress "to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution
the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution
in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer
thereof." After the unsuccessful effort of Virginia and Kentucky,
through their famous resolutions of 1798 drawn up by Jefferson and
Madison to interpose State authority in preventing Congress from

exercising its powers, the United States Government with Chief Justice
John Marshall as the expounder of that document, soon brought the
country around to the position of thinking that, although the Federal
Government is one of enumerated powers, that government and not that
of States is the judge of the extent of its powers and, "though limited in
its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action."[1] Marshall showed,
too, that "there is no phrase in the instrument which, like the Articles of
Confederation, excludes incidental or implied powers; and which
requires that everything granted shall be expressly and minutely
described."[2] Marshall insisted, moreover, "that the powers given to
the government imply the ordinary means of execution," and "to imply
the means necessary to an end is generally understood as implying any
means, calculated to produce the end and not as being confined to those
single means without which the end would be entirely unattainable."[3]
He said: "Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the
Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly
adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter
and the spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional."
Fortified thus, the Constitution became the rock upon which
nationalism was built and by 1833 there were few persons who
questioned the supremacy of the Federal Government, as did South
Carolina with its threats of nullification. Because of the beginning of
the intense slavery agitation not long thereafter, however, and the
division of the Democratic party into a national and a proslavery group,
the latter advocating