The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-27
RIGHTS OF CITIZENS.

RIGHTS OF CITIZENS.
From the y. y Nation.
An esteemed correspondent asks us to an
swer the following questions elias citizen
of the United States, as such, any rights
within the several States, and if any, what
rights? What would be appropriate legisla-
ton to enforce such rights?" We will reply
as briefly as possible, but shall not go over
ground with which we have already made our
readers familiar. The Constitution, as origi-
naly adopted, assumed that the status of citi-
zenship existed Independently of that instru-
ment, but it nowhere defined this condition,
nor described the rights and immunities
which flow from it; it rather took them for
granted as being involved in the very notion
of citizens and citizenship. Undoubtedly
citizenship implies duty of protec-
tion on the one side correlative to the duty
of allegiance on the other. 1t seemed best to
confer upon the several States the function of
actively administering this high duty in re-
spect to personal liberty, security, and the
enjoyment of property. To the State govern
ments was therefore allotted the primary,
and, with the exception Immediately to be
stated, the exclusive control of all matters
pertaining to the domestic and civil affairs of
the citizen, all matters relating to the protec-
ton of life, person, liberty, and property.
But while the grants to the States were thus
so large, and were unrestrained by any ex-
press limitations, except by the provision that
''the citizens of each State shall be entitled
to all privileges and immunities of citizens
in the several States," and by the pro-
visions respecting bills of attainder, er-pOSt-
.fdcto laws, and laws impairing the obli-
cation of contracts, they were nevertheless
held and were to be exercised under most
important implied limitation, growing out of
the fundamental facts of an essential nation
ality and of citizenship Independent of the
Constitution, and out of the resduum of duty
left in the General Government to afford final
protection to citizens. This implied limita-
ton was as follows:-An citizens being free
and equal, they must remain so before the
laws of State; they must be left by those
laws in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and
property; they must not be subjected to any
discriminating or class legislation. In other
words, while the field of active legislation in
reference to all private and civil matters was
left open to the States and was primarily to
be occupied by them alone, they were impli-
city forbidden to make or enforce any
law which should abridge the privi-
leges or immunities of citizens of the
United States, or to deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law, or to deny to any citizen
the equal protection of the laws. In our
opinion, State statute which violated these
exactly the same extent and for exactly the
same reason that bill of attainder or law
impairing the obligation of contracts was null
and void. The first section of the fourteenth
amendment was therefore declaratory of the
meaning of the Constitution, and introduced
no new principle or rule. We concede that
this position would not have been acuuiesced
In prior to the war, which kinded the slum-
bering sentiment of nationality into clear and
steady flame, but it is now accepted as correct
by all who, like ourselves, regard the United
States as essentially a nation, and its organic
law as framed by the one people thereof. In
it We find the authority to enact the Civil
Rights bill, which was so grand an idea in
the development of the national idea. What
ever doubts may have existed prior to the war
in respect to the rights of citizens and the
limitations upon the legislative power of the
States, they have all been removed by the
first section of the fourteenth amendment,
which has simply put into positive and
express form what was before inferential and
subject to the varying Interpretation of Con-
crosses and courts.
The result is that, citizens being free and
equal, each one has, as against the State in
which he may be-that is, as against the State
acting in its organic capacity-the right to
remain free and equal to his fellows. The
State is organically represented by its legisla-
lure, which alone Wlelds the portion of soVe-
reignty entrusted to it; the State acts organi-
cally by its legislature, and through it's laws,
and in no other manner; the implied restric-
tions of the Constitution which we have men,
toned, and the express restrictions of the
fourteenth amendment, are in terms ad-
dressed to State exercising its function of
law-making. The citizen has, therefore,
under the fourteenth amendment the right,
as against a State, that no laws shall be
passed by its Legislature, or enforced by its
officers, which abridge his privileges or i'm
munities as a citizen, which deprive him of
life, liberty, or property without due process
of law, OF which deny to him the equal pro-
lection of the laws. He has thus a right, as
against the State, that his life, liberty or
property shall not be taken from him by
virtue of State authority, in any other man
ner than by regular course of Judicial pro-
ceediDg, and that all laws which affect him in
his private and civil capacity shall affect him
and all other citizens alike, without discrimi-
nation or class distinction. Under other pro-
visions of the Constitution, he has a
right, as against State, that its legisla-
ture shall pass no bill of attainder,
eS-poSt.f .factO law, or law impairing the obli-
cation of contracts, which may operate upon
his life, person, liberty, property, or agree
ments. The effect of the second section of