192 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



laws of the several States. These words are 

 nowhere precisely defined in the Constitution, 

 laws, or judicial decisions of our country; but 

 in the uniform practice of the country, in many 

 learned commentaries, and numberless judicial 

 decisions touching the subject more or less di- 

 rectly, they have been so nearly defined as to 

 remove all doubt as fro their substantial meaning. 



"I therefore hold that the first paragraph in 

 question is merely declaratory in a more spe- 

 cific and authoritative form of what was law 

 before. It gives no support^ in my judgment, 

 to the extraordinary propositions contained in 

 this bill. It is manifestly intended only to re- 

 move all doubt, if any existed, upon the fact 

 that nativity and naturalization confer, in the 

 language of Justice Story, a general citizenship 

 of the United States and give the country juris- 

 diction over them, and give rise to the correla- 

 tive obligations of allegiance and protection ; 

 and also to declare all such persons citizens alike 

 of the States wherein they reside. The latter 

 citizenship must also be held to be of that same 

 general character. It is not more specific or 

 certain or better defined, and amounts in law to 

 just what it did before this enactment. Ever 

 since the organization of the Union, and just 

 as much before as since this amendment, any 

 citizen of the United States who voluntarily 

 removed to and became a permanent resident 

 of any State, that instant, and by virtue of 

 that act and fact, became also a citizen of that 

 State. 



" But my colleague on this select committee 

 (Mr. Shellabarger) claims that this paragraph 

 contains a grant of power. 



" Will it be pretended by any gentleman in 

 this age of the world that a great nation can 

 exist, and that in her midst children may be 

 born, or persons may be naturalized, and yet 

 not be citizens of that country ? Is it needful 

 that in the fundamental law it shall be declared 

 in exact and precise words that ^they are citi- 

 zens in order to make them citizens? Why, 

 all the world knows, the most unlettered of 

 our people understand, that every human being 

 born within the jurisdiction of any nation, or 

 naturalized under its laws, is, by virtue of those 

 facts alone, a citizen of that country in the 

 fullest and amplest sense of the term." 



Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, said : " Does 

 my friend mean to say that was the case before 

 the adoption of the thirteenth amendment?" 



Mr. Kerr : " I say frankly that I so said be- 

 fore the adoption of the thirteenth amendment ; 

 I say it since the adoption of the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth amendments ; and, if you please, 

 I may as well say here, that, in my judgment, 

 all these amendments are a part of the funda- 

 mental law of this country. But the gentle- 

 man manifestly refers to the decision of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States in the case 

 of Dred Scott, and it was to meet that very de- 

 cisionand I am glad the gentleman has in- 

 vited my attention to it that this particular 

 language was incorporated in this fourteenth 



amendment. The court in that case, before 

 the adoption of the thirteenth amendment, had 

 decided that negroes, under certain circum- 

 stances, and for certain purposes, were not 

 citizens of the United States, and that question 

 was removed when that thirteenth amendment 

 was ratified. Then, what is the next pretend- 

 ed grant of power in this first section ? It is 

 that 



No State shall make or enforce any law which shall 

 abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 

 United, States. 



"This language does not distinctly refer to 

 the ' privileges or immunities ' of citizens of the 

 States. The privileges or immunities which 

 are to be enjoyed under this provision are 

 those alone which inhere in and attach to the 

 very idea of citizenship of the United States. 

 I want gentlemen also to remember that sec- 

 tion two of article four of the Constitution of 

 the United States declares that 



The citizens of eacl^ State shall be entitled to all 

 privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 

 States. 



" Observe that the privileges and immunities 

 of citizens of the States, in the relations of the 

 States to each other, are protected to them by 

 the second section of the fourth article of the 

 Constitution, and not by any thing in the four- 

 teenth article of amendments. 



"But I want also to invite attention to the 

 meaning of the words ' privileges and immuni- 

 ties ' as used in this section of the amendment. 

 It appears to be assumed in the popular mind, 

 and too often by the law-makers, that theso 

 are words of the most general and comprehen- 

 sive nature, and that they embrace the whole 

 catalogue of human rights, and that they con- 

 fer the power and the obligation to enact affirm- 

 ative and most dangerous laws. I insist that 

 these words constitute a limitation on the pow- 

 er of the States as against any infringement of 

 the rights of citizens of the United States. The 

 provision needs no legislation to enforce it. It 

 is better enforced by its own vigor and by judi- 

 cial decisions than by legislation. Hitherto, 

 in the history of our country, it has been so 

 enforced in good faith, completely, adequately, 

 without resistance or popular discontent, and 

 our institutions flourished, and our people were 

 protected by the courts against infractions of 

 this guarantee. 



"Yet we are told by gentlemen that the 

 right of the people of this country to enjoy the 

 equal protection of the laws is now for the first 

 time guaranteed by the Constitution of the 

 United States to the people. Need I say to 

 the intelligent lawyers or others here that there 

 exists in this country no constitution, no State 

 government, no code of laws in any single 

 State, which does not recognize these rights 

 as fully and completely as they can be, or as 

 they are now indicated by this fourteenth 

 amendment ? There is no language or formula 

 of liberty and equality in the constitutional law 

 of the country which our people have heard 



