Montgomery Blair Quotes
The author of the Declaration of Independence and his associates declared equal rights impracticable in society constituted of masses of different races
Montgomery Blair, 1813-1883, U. S. Postmaster General (Republican), Speech, Concord, Massachusetts, June 17, 1863
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This was the infamous opinion whereby the Supreme Court upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine thereby preserving racial discrimination until the reversal over 50 years later. See the sole dissent of Justice John Marshall Harlan whose views were those that eventually prevailed although at the time all the other justices voted with the majority. See {583706} and {583703}.
Quoted in the Court’s notes of the meeting
Essentially this quotation led to a major war and yhrn a later war of independence for Blacks in South Africa. Porter was the Attorney General of the English Cape Colony in South Africa. In an early legal ruling he observed that South Aftica was a colony under English law which did not permit discrimination on the basis of skin color. However, there was a large proportion of Afrikaners—whites of Dutch Ancestry who were culturally strong racists and saw the Blacks as a combination of potential rivals for land and a potential subjegated labor force. They tended to leave the Capetown area and English law. The Afrikaners ended up in a major war—the Boer War—against the English and although the English won the war, the Afrikaners won the political peace and ended up dominating South Africa and imposing apartheid. The Blacks of the mid 20th century had if nothing else, the 100 year old legal and moral precendent from Porter’s opinion which justified the ANC leading the attack on apartheid which finally succeeded. It took 100 years and millions of suffering and dying people but finally, the law of South Africa was as Porter had stated it, and since the Blacks were in the great majority, the Whites became the minority, but due to the ANC leadership of men like Nelson Mandella, the Blacks did not seek revenge on the Afrikaner whites although there was resentlent for generations.
The power structure of England and the English administrators of South Africa were strong advocates of racial equality at the beginning of the 19th century. They insisted on equal administration of law. However the Boer white population could think of nothing more absurd. In a sense the Boers were much like the Southern Whites at the same time. The South African government however could not enforce its equality policies in the rural area – the majority of South Africa at the time. When democracy and self rule came to South Africa, the racially moderating force of the English was minimized and the majority of South Africans wanted a racially segregated society. Apartheid resulted.
The rights possessed by the Arab minority of Israel exceeds not only those of Jews in any Arab nation, and exceeds those of any minority in an Arab state. And because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, the Arabs of Israel possess more political rights than do Arabs anywhere else in the Middle East. The number of Arab political parties in Israel is larger than that of most Arab nations where opposition parties are rarely permitted.
Many fighters for civil rights split from the majority of the Black leadership over racial preferences for affirmative action.
Montgomery Blair was an American politician and lawyer from Maryland. He served in the Lincoln administration cabinet as Postmaster-General from 1861 to 1864, during the Civil War. He was the son of Francis Preston Blair, elder brother of Francis Preston Blair, Jr. and cousin of B. Gratz Brown.
