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akes from the judicial department of the States | land their home, must undergo a probation of five. be sacred and exclusive duty of judicial decision, years, and can only then become citizens upon nd converts the State judge into a mere minis-proof that they are "of good moral character, erial officer, bound to decide according to the attached to the principles of the Constitution of vill of Congress. the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same."

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tempted to be fixed by federal law in every State of 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 races. In the exercise of State policy over matfters exclusively affecting the people of each State, it has frequently been thought expedient to discriminate between the two races. By the statutes of some of the States, northern well as southren, it is enacted, for instance, that no white person shall intermarry with a negro or mulatto. Chancellor Kent says, speaking of the blacks, that "marriages between them and the whites are forbidden in some of the States where slavery does not exist, and they are prohibited in all the slaveholding States; and when not absolutely contrary to law, they are revolting, and regarded as an offence against public decorum."

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It is clear that, in States which depy to perons whose rights are secured by the first section 1 The first section of the bill also contains an of the bill any one of those rights, all criminal enumeration of the rights to be enjoyed by these and civil cases affecting them will, by the pro-classes, so made citizens, "in every State and isions of the third section, come under the ex-Territory in the United States." These rights lusive cognizance of the federal tribunals. It are, "to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be ollows that if, in any State which denies to a aparties, and give evidence; to inherit, purchase, colored person any one of all those rights, that lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal person should commit a crime against the laws property;" and to have "full and equal benefit of fa State-murder, arson, rape, or any other all laws and proceedings for the security of person rime-all protection and punishment through and property as is enjoyed by white citizens." he courts of the State are taken away, and he So, too, they are made subject to the same punishan only be tried and punished in the federal Iments, pains, and penalties in common with white courts. How is the criminal to be tried? If citizens, and to none other. Thus a perfect che offence is provided for and punished by.fed-equality of the white and colored races is ateral law, that law, and not the State law, is to govern. It is only when the offence does not happen to be within the purview of federal law hat the federal courts are to try and punish him under any other law. Then resort is to be had to the "common law, as modified and changed" by State legislation, "so far as the same is not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." So that over this vast domain of criminal jurisprudence provided by each State for the protection of its own citizens, and for the punishment of all persons who violate its criminal laws, federal law, whenasked whether it is necessary that they should be declared citizens, in order that they may be secured in the enjoyment of the civil rights proposed to be conferred by the bill? Those rights are, by federal as well as State laws, secured to all domiciled aliens and foreigners, even before the completion of the process of naturalization; and it may safely be assumed that the same enactments are sufficient to give like protection and benefits to those for whom this bill provides special legislation. Besides, the policy of the Government, from its origin to the present time, seems to have been that persons who are stran gers to and unfamiliar with our institutions and our laws should pass through a certain probation, at the end of which, before attaining the coveted prize, they must give evidence of their fitness to receive and to exercise the rights of citizens, as contemplated by the Constitution of the United States. The bill, in effect, proposes a discrimination against large numbers of intelligent, worthy, and patriotic foreigners, and in favor of the negro, to whom, after long years of bondage, the avenues to freedom and intelligence have just now been suddenly opened. He must, of necessity, from his previous unfortunate condition of servitude, be less informed as to the nature and character of our institutions than he who, coming from abroad, has to some extent, at least, familiarized himself with the principles of a government to which he voluntarily intrusts "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Yet it is now proposed, by a single legislative enactment, to confer the rights of citizens upon all persons of African descent born within the extended limits of the United States, while persons of foreign birth, who make our

I do not say that this bill repeals State laws on the subject of marriage between the two races; for, as the whites are forbidden to intermarry with the blacks, the blacks can only make such contracts as the whites themselves are allowed to make, and therefore connot, under this bill, enter into the marriage contract with the whites. I cite this discrimination, however, as an instance of the State policy as to discrimination, and to inquire whether, if Congress can abrogate 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 marriage between the two races? Hitherto every subject embraced in the enumeration of rights contained in this bill has been considered as exclusively belonging to the States. They all relate to the internal police 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 its own peculiar circumstances and the safety and well-being of its own citizens. I 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 ex post facto law; and, as to money, that no State shall make anything but gold and silver a legal

custom, or prejudice, any of the civil rights or immunities belonging to white persons, including the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal property, and to have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and estate, including the constitutional right of bearing arms, are refused or denied to negroes, mulattoes, freedmen, refugees, or any other persons, on account of race, color, or any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, or wherein they or any of them are subjected to any other or different punishment, pains, or penalties, for the commission of any act or offence than are prescribed for white persons committing like acts or offences, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States, through the commissioner, to extend military protection and jurisdiction over all cases affecting such persons so discriminated against.

SEC. 8. That any person who, under color of any State or local law, ordinance, police, or other regulation or custom, shall, in any State or district in which the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebelfion, subject, or cause to be subjected, any negro, mulatto, freedman, refugee, or other person account of race or color, or any pre dition of slavery or involunta

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er sament Save been duly Avec Arzace, than of white perof a misdemeanor, punished by a fine and dollars, or imprisvacag one year, or both, in the This section seems to y to some existing or future Savor Territory which may conflict Apoyasions of the bill now under conIt provides for counteracting such don legislation by imposing fine and imamment upon the legislators who may pass such coatleting laws, or upon the officers or agents who shall put or attempt to put them into It means an official offence-not a common crime committed against law upon the persons or property of the black race. Such an act may deprive the black man of his property, but not of the right to hold property. It means a deprivation of the right itself, either by the State judiciary or the State legislature. It is therefore assumed that under this section members of State legislatures who should vote for laws conflicting with the provisions of the bill, that judges of the State courts who should render judgments in antagonism with its terms, and that marshals and sheriffs who should, as ministerial officers, execute processes sanctioned by State laws and issued by State judges in execution of their judgments, could be brought before other tribunals, and there subjected to fine and

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February 6-The bill passed-yeas 137, nays 33, as follow:

YEAS-Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Delos R Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barker Baxter, Beaman, Benjamin, Bidwell, Bingham, Blaine, Elow, w. Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, Conkling, Cook, Cullon, Boutwell, Brandegee, Bromwell, Broomall, Bundy, Reade Darling, Davis, Dawes, Defrees, Delano, Deming, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eggleston, Eliot, Farns worth, Farquhar, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Griswold, Hal Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, Henderson, Higby, Hill Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, Chester D. Hubbard, Demas Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, James R Hubbell, James Humphrey, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Julián, Kas son, Kelley, Kelso, Ketcham, Kuykendall, Laflin, Latham, George V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, Lynch, Marston, Marvin, McClurg, McIndoe, McKee, McRuer, Mercur, Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Morris, Mor! ton, Myers, Newell, O'Neill, Orth, Paine, Patterson, Per. Phelps, Pike, Plants, Pomeroy, Price, Willions. Ti Raymond, Alexander H. Rice, John I yer, Schenck, Scofield, Shot & ing, Starr, Stevens, S L. Thomas, Tre Robert T

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Smith, Spald concis Thomas, John Aernam, Burt Van Hore, warner, Ellihu B. Washburne, ker, Wentworth, Whaley, Wiln, Stephen F. Wilson, Windom, Wood

cessrs. Boyer, Brooks, Chanler, Dawson, Eldridge, Glossbrenner, Grider, 'Aaron Harding, Harris, Ho

1, Edwin N. Hubbell, James M. Humphrey, Kerr, Le Blond, Marshall, McCullough, Niblack, Nicholson, Noell, Samud J. Randall, Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Rousseau, Shanklin, vi Sitareaves Strouse Taber, Taylor, Thornton Trimble

all matters arising within their jurisdiction, subject only to the restriction that, in cases of conflict with the Constitution and constitutional laws of the United States, the latter should be held to be the supreme law of the land.

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The third section gives the district courts of the United States exclusive "cognizance of all crimes and offences committed against the provisions of this act," and concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit courts of the United States of affecting persons all civil and criminal cases who are denied, or cannot enforce in the courts or judicial tribunals of the State or locality where they may be, any of the rights secured to them by the first section." The construction which I have given to the second section is strengthened by this third section, for it makes clear what kind of denial or deprivation of the rights secured by the first section was in contemplation. It is a denial or deprivation of such rights "in the courts or judicial tribunals of the State." It stands, therefore, clear of doubt that the offence and the penalties provided in the second section are intended for the State judge, who, in the clear exercise of his functions as a judge, not acting ministerially but judicially, shall decide contrary to this federal law. In other words, when a State judge, acting upon a question involving a conflict between a State law and a federal law, and bound, according to h own judgment and responsibility, to give an impartial decision between the two, comes to the conclusion that the State law is valid and the federal law is invalid, he must not follow the dictates of his own judgment, at the peril of fine and imprisonment. The legislative department of the Government of the United States thus

from the judicial department of the States sacred and exclusive duty of judicial decision, converts the State judge into a mere minisal officer, bound to decide according to the of Congress.

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t is clear that, in States which depy to perwhose rights are secured by the first section he bill any one of those rights, all criminal civil cases affecting them will, by the proons of the third section, come under the exive cognizance of the federal tribunals. It >ws that if, in any State which denies to a red person any one of all those rights, that son should commit a crime against the laws State-murder, arson, rape, or any other e-all protection and punishment through courts of the State are taken away, and he only be tried and punished in the federal How is the criminal to be tried? If offence is provided for and punished by.fedlaw, that law, and not the State law, is to ern. It is only when the offence does not pen to be within the purview of federal law tthe federal courts are to try and punish L under any other law. Then resort is to be to the common law, as modified and nged" by State legislation, "so far as the te is not inconsistent with the Constitution laws of the United States." So that over vast domain of criminal jurisprudence proed by each State for the protection of its own zens, and for the punishment of all persons o violate its criminal laws, federal law, whener it can be made to apply, displaces State law. e question here naturally arises, from what rce Congress derives the power to transfer to eral tribunals certain classes of cases embraced his section? The Constitution expressly deres that the judicial power of the United tes "shall extend to all cases in law and ity arising under this Constitution, the laws he United States, and treaties made, or which ll be made under their authority; to all cases cting ambassadors, other public ministers and suls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime isdiction; to controversies to which the ited States shall be a party; to controversies ween two or more States, between a State I citizens of another State, between citizens different States, between citizens of the same te claiming land under grants of different tes, and between a State, or the citizens thereand foreign States, citizens, or subjects," re the judicial power of the United States is ressly set forth and defined; and the act of tember 24, 1789, establishing the judicial rts of the United States, in conferring upon federal courts jurisdiction over cases origiing in State tribunals, is careful to confine m to the classes enumerated in the aboveited clause of the Constitution. This section the bill undoubtedly comprehends cases and horizes the exercise of powers that are not, the Constitution, within the jurisdiction of courts of the United States. To transfer m to those courts would be an exercise of hority well calculated to excite distrust and rm on the part of all the States; for the bill plies alike to all of them-as well to those it have as to those that have not been engaged rebellion.

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It may be assumed that this authority is incident to the power granted to Congress by the Constitution, as recently amended, to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the article declaring that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." It cannot, however, be justly claimed that, with a view to the enforcement of this article of the Constitution, there is at present any necessity for the exercise of all the powers which this bill confers. Slavery has been abolished, and at present nowhere exists within the jurisdiction of the United States; nor has there been, nor is it likely there will be, any attempt to revive it by the people or the States. If, however, any such attempt shall be made, it will then become the duty of the General Government to exercise any and all incidental powers necessary and proper to maintain inviolate this great constitutional law of freedom.

The fourth section of the bill provides that officers and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau shall be empowered to make arrests, and also that other officers may be specially commissioned for that purpose by the President of the United States. It also authorizes circuit courts of the United States and the superior courts of the Territories to appoint, without limitation, com missioners, who are to be charged with the performance of quasi judicial duties. The fifth section empowers the commissioners so to be selected by the courts to appoint in writing, under their hands, one or more suitable persons from time to time to execute warrants and other processes described by the bill. These numerous official agents are made to constitute a sort of police, in addition to the military, and are authorized to summon a posse comitatus, and even to call to their aid such portion of the land and naval forces of the United States, or of the militia, "as may be necessary to the performance of the duty with which they are charged." extraordinary power is to be conferred upon agents irresponsible to the Government and to the people, to whose number the discretion of the commissioners is the only limit, and in whose hands such authority might be made a terrible engine of wrong, oppression, and fraud. The general statutes regulating the land and naval forces of the United States, the militia, and the execution of the laws, are believed to be adequate for every emergency which can occur in time of peace. If it should prove otherwise, Congress can at any time amend those laws in such a manner as, while subserving the public welfare, not to jeopard the rights, interests, and liberties of the people.

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The seventh section provides that a fee of ten dollars shall be paid to each commissioner in every case brought before him, and a fee of five dollars to his deputy, or deputies, "for each person he or they may arrest and take before any such commissioner," "with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable by such commission," "in general for performing such other duties as may be required in the premises." All these fees are to be "paid out of the Treasury of the United States," whether there is a conviction or not; but in case of conviction they are to be

tender. But where can we find a federal prohi-wood, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morril Foster, Grimes, Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Ki

Norton, Nye, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague
Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Williams
Wilson, Yates-37.

NAYS-Messrs. Buckalew, Davis, Guthrie, Hendrick
Johnson, McDougall, Riddle, Saulsbury, Stockton, Wright
IN HOUSE.

10.

February 6-The bill passed-yeas 137, nays 33, as follow:

YEAS-Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Delos Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barker, Boutwell, Brandegee, Bromwell, Broomall, Bundy, Reade Baxter, Beaman, Benjamin, Bidwell, Bingham, Blaine, Elow, W. Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, Conkling, Cook, Cullor, Darling, Davis, Dawes, Defrees, Delano, Deming, Dixon worth, Farquhar, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Griswold, Hak Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eggleston, Eliot, Far Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, Henderson, Higby, Hi D. Hubbard, Demas Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, James Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, Cheste Hubbell, James Humphrey, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kas son, Kelley, Kelso, Ketcham, Kuykendall, Laflin, Latham, George V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, Lynch, Marston, Marvin, McClurg, McIndoe, McKel McRuer, Mercur, Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Morris, Mou! ton, Myers, Newell, O'Neill, Orth, Paine, Patterson, Perham, Phelps, Pike, Plants, Pomeroy, Price, William H. Randall Raymond, Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Rollins, Saw at yer, Schenck, Scofield, Shellabarger, Sloan, Smith, Spald ing, Starr, Stevens, Stilwell, Thayer, Francis Thomas, John L. Thomas, Trowbridge, Upson, Van Aernam, Burt Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Ward, Warner, Ellihu B. Washburne, a William B. Washburn, Welker, Wentworth, Whaley, Williams, James F. Wilson, Stephen F. Wilson, Windom, Woodbridge-137.

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bition against the power of any State to discrimi nate, as do most of them, between aliens and citizens, between artificial persons called corporations and natural persons, in the right to hold real estate? If it be granted that Congress can repeal all State laws discriminating between 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 capacity to make a contract in a State, then Congress can by law also declare who, without regard to color or race, shall have the right to sit as a juror or as a judge, to hold any office, and, finally, to vote, "in every State and Territory of the United States." As respects the Territories, they come within the power of Congress, for as to them the law-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 colored persons in the full enjoyment of all the rights secured to them by the preceding section. It declares "that any person who, under color of NAYS-Messrs. Boyer, Brooks, Chanler, Dawson, Eldridge is any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or cusFinck, Glossbrenner, Grider, 'Aaron Harding, Harris, H tom, shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any gan, Edwin N. Hubbell, James M. Humphrey, Kerr, Le Blond inhabitant of any State or Territory to the de- Marshall, McCullough, Niblack, Nicholson, Noell, Samsd J. Randall, Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Rousseau, Shankh privation of any right secured or protected by us Strouse Taber. Taylor, Thornton Trimby ve this act, or to different punishment, pains, or to all matters arising within their jurisdiction, penalties, on account of such person having at subject only to the restriction that, in cases of any time been held in a condition of slavery or conflict with the Constitution and constitutional involuntary servitude, except as a punishment laws of the United States, the latter should be for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly held to be the supreme law of the land. convicted, or by reason of his color or race, than is prescribed for the punishment of white persons, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the court." This section seems to be designed to apply to some existing or future law of a State or Territory which may conflict with the provisions of the bill now under consideration. It provides for counteracting such forbidden legislation by imposing fine and imprisonment upon the legislators who may pass such conflicting laws, or upon the officers or agents who shall put or attempt to put them into execution. It means an official offence-not a common crime committed against law upon the persons or property of the black race. Such an act may deprive the black man of his property, but not of the right to hold property. It means a deprivation of the right itself, either by the State judiciary or the State legislature. It is therefore assumed that under this section members of State legislatures who should vote for laws conflicting with the provisions of the bill, that judges of the State courts who should render judgments in antagonism with its terms, and that marshals and sheriffs who should, as ministerial officers, execute processes sanctioned by State laws and issued by State judges in execution of their judgments, could be brought before other tribunals, and there subjected to fine and

The third section gives the district courts of the United States exclusive "cognizance of all crimes and offences committed against the provisions of this act," and concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit courts of the United States all civil and criminal cases affecting persons who are denied, or cannot enforce in the courts or judicial tribunals of the State or locality where they may be, any of the rights secured to them by the first section." The construction which I have given to the second section is strengthened by this third section, for it makes clear what kind of denial or deprivation of the rights secured by the first section was in contemplation. It is a denial or deprivation of such rights "in the courts or judicial tribunals of the State." It stands, therefore, clear of doubt that the offence and the penalties provided in the second section are intended for the State judge, who, in the clear exercise of his functions as a judge, not acting ministerially but judicially shall decide contrary to this federal law. In other words, when a State judge, acting upon a question involving a conflict between a State law and a federal law, and bound, according to h own judgment and responsibility, to give an impartial decision between the two, comes to the conclusion that the State law is valid and the federal law is invalid, he must not follow the dictates of his own judgment, at the peril of fine and imprisonment. The legislative department of the Government of the United States thus

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kes from the judicial department of the States ne sacred and exclusive duty of judicial decision, nd converts the State judge into a mere miniserial officer, bound to decide according to the will of Congress.

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powers necessary and proper to maintain inviolate this great constitutional law of freedom.

It may be assumed that this authority is incident to the power granted to Congress by the Constitution, as recently amended, to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the article declaring that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, It is clear that, in States which deny to per- except as a punishment for crime whereof the ons whose rights are secured by the first section party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist of the bill any one of those rights, all criminal within the United States, or any place subject and civil cases affecting them will, by the pro- to their jurisdiction." It cannot, however, be isions of the third section, come under the ex- justly claimed that, with a view to the enforcelusive cognizance of the federal tribunals. It ment of this article of the Constitution, there is ollows that if, in any State which denies to a at present any necessity for the exercise of all olored person any one of all those rights, that the powers which this bill confers. Slavery has person should commit a crime against the laws been abolished, and at present nowhere exists of a State-murder, arson, rape, or any other within the jurisdiction of the United States; nor rime-all protection and punishment through has there been, nor is it likely there will be, any he courts of the State are taken away, and he attempt to revive it by the people or the States. an only be tried and punished in the federal If, however, any such attempt shall be made, it courts. How is the criminal to be tried? If will then become the duty of the General Govhe offence is provided for and punished by.fed-ernment to exercise any and all incidental eral law, that law, and not the State law, is to govern. It is only when the offence does not happen to be within the purview of federal law The fourth section of the bill provides that hat the federal courts are to try and punish officers and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau him under any other law. Then resort is to be shall be empowered to make arrests, and also had to the "common law, as modified and that other officers may be specially commissioned changed" by State legislation, "so far as the for that purpose by the President of the United same is not inconsistent with the Constitution States. It also authorizes circuit courts of the and laws of the United States." So that over United States and the superior courts of the this vast domain of criminal jurisprudence pro- Territories to appoint, without limitation, com vided by each State for the protection of its own missioners, who are to be charged with the percitizens, and for the punishment of all persons formance of quasi judicial duties. The fifth who violate its criminal laws, federal law, when- section empowers the commissioners so to be ever it can be made to apply, displaces State law. selected by the courts to appoint in writing, The question here naturally arises, from what under their hands, one or more suitable persons source Congress derives the power to transfer to from time to time to execute warrants and other federal tribunals certain classes of cases embraced processes described by the bill. These numerous in this section? The Constitution expressly de-official agents are made to constitute a sort of clares that the judicial power of the United States "shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States, between a State and citizens of another State, between citizens of different States, between citizens of the same State claiming land under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects," Here the judicial power of the United States is expressly set forth and defined; and the act of September 24, 1789, establishing the judicial courts of the United States, in conferring upon the federal courts jurisdiction over cases originating in State tribunals, is careful to confine them to the classes enumerated in the aboverecited clause of the Constitution. This section of the bill undoubtedly comprehends cases and authorizes the exercise of powers that are not, by the Constitution, within the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States. To transfer them to those courts would be an exercise of authority well calculated to excite distrust and alarm on the part of all the States; for the bill applies alike to all of them-as well to those that have as to those that have not been engaged in rebellion.

police, in addition to the military, and are authorized to summon a posse comitatus, and even to call to their aid such portion of the land and naval forces of the United States, or of the militia, "as may be necessary to the performance of the duty with which they are charged." This extraordinary power is to be conferred upon agents irresponsible to the Government and to the people, to whose number the discretion of the commissioners is the only limit, and in whose hands such authority might be made a terrible engine of wrong, oppression, and fraud. The general statutes regulating the land and naval forces of the United States, the militia, and the execution of the laws, are believed to be adequate for every emergency which can occur in time of peace. If it should prove otherwise, Congress can at any time amend those laws in such a manner as, while subserving the public welfare, not to jeopard the rights, interests, and liberties of the people.

The seventh section provides that a fee of ten dollars shall be paid to each commissioner in every case brought before him, and a fee of five dollars to his deputy, or deputies, "for each person he or they may arrest and take before any such commissioner," "with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable by such commission," "in general for performing such other duties as may be required in the premises." All these fees are to be "paid out of the Treasury of the United States," whether there is a conviction or not; but in case of conviction they are to be

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