666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



any law " which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citi- 

 zens of the United States," or denying " to any person within its juris- 

 diction equal protection of the law." This amendment required con- 

 gressional legislation to carry it into effect. It did not provide for its 

 own execution. To give effect to the amendment, the famous Civil 

 Rights Bill was passed in 1870, which is referred to in the opinion of 

 the court. 



In November, 1881, Tony Pace, a negro man, and Mary J. Cox, a 

 white woman, were indicted under section 4,189 of the code of Ala- 

 bama, and were convicted, and each sentenced to two years' im- 

 prisonment in the penitentiary. The State Supreme Court having 

 affirmed the sentence, Pace sued out a writ of error to the Supreme 

 Court of the United States. After full argument, through Mr. Jus- 

 tice Field, its organ, that court said : " The counsel of the plaintiff in 

 error compares sections 4,184 and 4,189 of the code of Alabama, and 

 assuming that the latter relates to the same offense as the former, and, 

 prescribes a greater punishment for it, because one of the parties is a 

 negro, or of negro descent, claims that a discrimination is made against 

 the colored person in the punishment designated, which conflicts with 

 the clause of the fourteenth amendment prohibiting a State from deny- 

 ing to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 



" The counsel is undoubtedly correct in his view of the purpose of 

 the clause of the amendment in question, that it was to prevent hostile 

 and discriminating State legislation against any person or class of 

 persons. 



" Equality of protection under the law implies not only accessibility 

 by each one, whatever his race, on the same terms with others to the 

 courts of the country for the security of his person and property, but 

 that in the administration of criminal justice he shall not be subjected, 

 for the same offense, to any greater or different punishment. Such 

 was the view of Congress in the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 

 May 31, 1870, chap. 114, after the adoption of the amendment. That 

 act, after providing that all persons within the jurisdiction of the 

 United States shall have the same right, in every State and Territory, 

 to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and 

 to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the secu- 

 rity of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, declares in 

 section 16 that they " shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penal- 

 ties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind and none other, any 

 law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



" The defect in the argument of counsel consists in his assumption 

 that any discrimination is made by the laws of Alabama in the pun- 

 ishment provided for the offense, for which the plaintiff in error was 

 indicted when committed by a person of the African race and when 

 committed by a white person. 



