With a title, Rebuke of the Eastern Railroad Company, for their treatment of Colored Passengers, there is a report here of a debate in the House, relative to a bill which would authorize the Railroad to extend its wharves. Mr. Bradburn, of Nantucket, takes the opportunity to announce that he will vote against the measure, as a rebuke to the Railroad for its “invidious and unjust treatment” of colored persons. Discussion on the floor includes objections by some to having colored persons sit next to them on the train because of an offensive odor. Someone else says that as long as slaves sit among people on the trains there is no objection to the odor, but only when the travelers are free colored people…… “when a free citizen of Massachusetts, having a colored skin, dares to step into one of these vehicles, which slaves may occupy without offence, why our nobility turn up their noses and talk of odor! While the colored man is a slave, our most delicate
aristocrats can sit beside him in any of our public conveyances; but make him a free man, and pah, they cannot sit within miles of him!” There is no record here of a conclusion to the debate or action by the House..
Comments are closed.