Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1866-04-14
to the good order and happiness Of the same.

auu lcITlCOTy III Gue Onlteu OldCeS neSc
rights are to make and enforce contracts, to
sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit,
purchase, lease, rent, hold, and convey real
and personal property, and to have full and
equal benefit Of all laws and proceedings for
the security of persons and property as is en-
joyed by white citizens; SO, too, they are
made subject to the same punishment, pains
and penalties, common with white citizens,
and to none others. Thus a perfect equality
Of the white aud colored races is attempted to
be fixed by Federal law, in every State of the
Union, over the vast field Of State jurisdic-
tion covered by these enumerated rights In
no one of them can any State exercise any
power of discrimination between different
races. In the exercise Of Stat, policy, over
matters exclusively affecting the people Of each
State, it has frequently been thought expedi-
ent to discriminate between the two races.
BY the statutes of some of the States, North
as well It's South. it is enacted, for instance,
that no white person shall intermarry with a
negro or mulatto. Chancellor Kent says,
speaking of the blacks that marriage between
them and the whites are forbidden in some of
the States where slavery dues not exist, and
they are prohibited in all the slavcholling
States by law, and when not absolutely con-
trary to law, they are revolving, and regarded
81 m offence against public decorum. / do
not say that this Bill repeals State laws on the
subject of marriage between the two races for,
us the whites are forbidden to intermarry with
the blacks, the blacks can only, make such
cottracts as the whites themselves ure allowed
to make, and, therefore, cannot, under this
Bill, enter into the marriage contract with the
whites. / cite this discrimination, however,
as an instance of the State policy MS to dis
elimination, and to inquire whether, if Con-
gress can abrogatc all State laws of discrimi-
nation between the two races, in matter Of real
estate, of suits, and of contracts generally,
Congress may not also repeal the State laws as
to the contract Of marriage between the two
races Hitherto every subject embraced in
the enumeration OF rights contained in the
Bill has been considered as exclusively belong
ing to the States; they all relate to the inter
nal policy and economy OF the respective
States ); they are matters which in each State
concern the domestic condition of It's people,
varying in each according to its own peculiar
circumstances aid the safety and well being
of its own citizens
| do not mean to say that upon all these
subjects there are not Federal restraints; aa,
for instance, in the State power of legislation
over contracts there is Federal limitation
that no State shall pass law mpairng the
obligations Of contracts; and, as to crimes,
that no State shall pass an &c post tucto law !;
and, as to money, that no State shall make
anything but gold and silver legal tender
But where can we find Federal prohibition
against the power,of any State to discriminate,
as do most Of them, between aliens and citi-
zens? between artificial persons called rpo-
rations and naturalized persons IN the rip Int to
hold real estate? If it be granted that Con.
gress can repeal oil State laws discriminating
between whites and blacks in the subjects
covered by this Bill, why, 1t may be asked,
may not Congress repeal in the aamc way all
State laws discriminating between the two
races on the subjecto of suffrage and office If
Congress can declare by law who shall hold
lands, who shall testify, who shall have ca
pacity to make contract in State, Congress
can also by law declare who, without regard
to race or color, shay have the right to sit AZ
juror or as judge, to hold any office, and
finally to vote, in every State and Territory
of the United States. AS respects the Terri
tories, they come within the power of Con-
grcss for as to them the a]aw-making power
is the Federal power, but as to the States, no
similar provision exists vesting in Congress
the power to make rules and regulations for
them.
The object of the second section of the Bill
is to afford discriminating protection to col
Il r..li1 e n IL