Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/171

* BIGHTS. 151 RIGHTS. in some of them the negro has been efTectually ex- cluded from the suffrage l)y constitutiniial and statritory provisions prescribing strict educational or property qualiticatious for the exercise of the right to vote. The first provision, which aims to secure to all citizens equality of rights and privileges, though not as completely futile as the others to ■n-hich reference has been made, has had a very limited effect. Being by its terms restricted to the acts of States, it does not extend to the acts of individuals, even though they be State otficials in the performance of their public duties. Thus a statute of West Virginia providing that juries should be composed of 'white male citi- zens' is in conflict with the constitutional pro- vision, and therefore void ; but the act of a county judge in habitually excluding negroes from the juries which he was authorized by law to select from the citizens of the county at large was not controlled by the provision in question. Then, too, the operation of the provision has been more restricted by judicial construction, as in the decision that a statute forbidding the in- termarriage of whites and blacks was not within the condemnation of the Constitution, as the amendment in question was designed to secure rights of a civil and political nature only and not social or domestic rights. It has also been held that the amendment does not add to the privileges and immunities of citizens, but only protects those which they already have. Thus it does not extend the franchise nor the right to serve on juries to negroes or to women who do not already possess it. These illustrations show that the civil rights legislation of the nation at large has been of little effect. The more immediate and complete jurisdiction of the several States over their citi- zens, however, renders legislation of this char- acter when enacted by them much more effica- cious. Several of the Northern States have ac- cordingly passed effective civil rights laws of the general tenor of the constitutional provisions above considered, but aimed at individual rather than governmental interference Mith such rights. Thus in many of the States railroad and other transportation companies, hotels, theatres, school boards, etc., are forbidden to discriminate against persons becau'Se of their color or previous condi- tion of servitude, and such laws have been found to be reasonably capable of enforcement. The strong sentiment of the decade immediately fol- lowing the Civil War has to a considerable extent abated, however, and, though the negro is still far from the enjoyment of the civil rights of his white fellow-citizens, the demand for such legis- lation as that above described has, at the begin- ning of the twentieth century, well nigh died out. This is proliably due in a measure to a growing conviction that such rights are rather to be won by the growth of intelligence, virtue, and indus- try, than gained by legislation. KIGHTS, Declaeation and Bill of. A state- ment of the fundamental rights of the English nation prepared by the convention which called the Prince and Princess of Orange to the throne of England after the Revolution of 1688, and which was imposed on William and ilary as a condition of their succession to the crown. This declaration, drawn up by a committee of the Commons, and assented to by the Lords, began by declaring that King James II. had committed certain acts contrary to the laws of the realm. The King, by whose authority these unlawful ads had been done, had adbicated the throne; niid the Prince of Orange having invited the estates of the realm to meet ami deliberate on the security of religion, law, and freedom, the Lords and Com- mons had resolved to declare and assert the ancient rights and liberties of England. This declaration of rights was pre.senteil to the Prince and Princess of Orange at Whitehall, and accepted by them with the crown. Being originally a revolutionary instrument, drawn up in an irregular assembly, it was considered necessary that it should be turned into law. The declaration of rights was therefore brought for- ward in the Parliament, into which the conven- tion had been turned, as a bill of riglits, and passed the Commons; but an amendment pro- posed in the Lords regarding the settlement of the crown on the issue of the Princess Sophia, in the event of Mary, Anne, and William all dying without issue, led to several ineli'cctual confer- ences between the two Houses, which ended in the measure being dropped. The bill was, how- ever, reintroduced in the following session of Parliament (1G8!)) without the proposed amend- ment, when it passed both Houses, ami obtained the royal assent — a clause, however, IxMug added, which originated in the House of Lords, to the effect that the kings and queens of England should be obliged, on coming to the throne, in full Parliament or at the coronation, to repeat and subscribe the declaration against transub- stantiation, and that a king or queen who should marry a Roman Catholic would be incapable of reigning in England, and his or her subjects would be absolved from their allegiance. The coro- nation provisions in the Declaration of Rights have been closely adhered to in England ever since the days of William, but recent enactments of Parliament (1001) have rendered it possible to make certain modifications in the coronation oath, whereby Roman Catholics may not be of- fended, especially in the declaration against tiansubstantiation. The text of this declaration may be found in Adams and Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History (New York, 1901).' BIGHTS, Legal. In attempting to define a legal right, juristic writers lay more or less stress upon the following points: (1) A legal right is a power or complex of powers accorded by the law to a person, natural or ideal. The person to whom a right is accorded, in whom it is "vested," is sometimes termed the 'person of inherence' (2) A legal right implies a general duty of all other persons not to interfere with its exercise. If a risht entitles its holder to demand from a particular person a special forbearance or a special act, a special duty rests upon that per- son. The persons upon whom duties rest, or against whom rights run, are sometimes termed 'persons of incidence.' (3) From the correspond- ence of rights and duties it results that the law may create rights by implication, by imposing general or special duties. (4) Rights are lim- ited powers. Unlimited powers belong only to the sovereign, the State. (.5) Rights protect in- terests. ■ The interests protected may be public or private or mixed. It is not always admitted that every legal right implies a corresponding general duty of non-interference. It is often asserted that obli-