The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-04-05

purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey
real and personal property" and to
have " full and equal benefit ofall laws
and proceedings for the security of per-
son and property as is enjoyed by white
Citizens" So, too, they are made SUBJ
Ject to the same punishment, pains, and
penalties i'll common with white citi-
zens, and to none others. Thus perfect
equality of the white and black races is
attempted to be fixed by Federal law in
every State in the Union, over the vast
field of State jurisdiction covered by
these enumerated rights. In no one of
these can any State ever exercise any
power of discrimination between the
different cases.
In the exercise of State policy over
matters exclusively affecting the people
of each State, it has frequently been
thought expedient to discriminate be-
tween the two races. By the statutes of
some of the States, Northern as we'll as
Southern, it is enacted, for instance, that
no white person shall intermarry with
negro or mulatto. Chancellor Kent
says, speaking Of the blacks, that omar
riages between them and the whites are
forbidden in some Of the States where
slavery does not exist, and they are pro-
hibited in all the slaveholdng States,
and, when not absolutely contrary to
law, they are revolving and regarded as
an offence against public decorum."
do not say this bill repeats the State
laws on the subject of marriage between
the two races, for as the whites are for
hidden to intermarry with the blacks,
the blacks can only make such contracts
as the whites themselves are allowed to
make, and, therefore cannot, under this
bill, enter into the marriage contract
with the whites. l cite this discrimi-
nation, however, as an instance of the
State policy as to discrimination, and to
inquire whether if Congress can abro-
gate all State laws of discrimination
between the two races, in the matter of
real estate, of suits and Of contracts
generally, Congress may not also repeal
the State laws as to the contract of mar
riage between the two races? Hitherto
every subject embraced in the enume-
ration Of rights contained in this bill
has been considered as exclusively be-
longing to the States. They all relate to
the internal policy and economy of the
respective States. They are matters
which in each State concern the domestic
condition of its people, varying in each
according to it's own peculiar circum-
stances and the safety and we'll being of
its own citizens. / do not mean to say
that upon all these subjects there are
not Federal restraints as for instance,
in the State power of legislation over
contracts, there is a Federal limitation
that no State shall pass a law impairing
the obligations of contracts, and as to
crimes, that no State shall pass an er
post fNctO law, and as to money, that no
State shall make anything but gold and
silver legal tender. But where can we
find a Federal prohibition against the
power Of any State to discriminate, as
do most of them, between aliens and
citizens, between artificial persons called
corporations, and natural persons, in the
right to hold real estate? ytH
If it be granted that Congress can re-
peal all State laws discriminating be-
tween whites and blacks in the subjects
covered by this bill, why, it may be
asked, may not Congress repeal in the
same way all State laws discriminating
between the two races on the subjects OF
suffrage and office: If Congress can
declare by law who shall hold lands,
who shall testify, who shall have ca
pacity to make a contract in a State, then
| Congress can also decide who, without
regard to color or race, shall have the
right 10 SIT as juror, OF as Il Judge, 10
hold any Office, and, finally, to vote Tin
every State and Territory Of the United
States.'' AS respects the Territories,
they come within the power of Congress,
for as to them the lawmaking power is
the Federal power; but as to the States
no similar provisions exist, 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 pro-
lection to colored persons in the full en-
| joyment of all the rights secured to them
by the preceding section. It declares
'''that any person who, under color OF
any law, statute, ordinance, regulation,
or custom, shall subject, or cause to be
subjected, any inhabitant of any State
or Territory to the deprivation of any
right secured or protected by this act
or to different punishment, pains, OF
penalties, on account of such persons
having at any time been held in con.
dition. of slavery or involuntary servi
tude, except as II punishment of crime
whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, Or by reason of his color Of
race, than is prescribed for the punish
ment of white persons, shall be deemed
guilty of misdemeanor, and, on.con