CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



201 



or natural person and owner, or in charge of 

 any public, inn, or of any place of public amuse- 

 ment or entertainment i'r which a license from 

 .'ill authority i* required, or of any line 

 .ro-coaches, railroad, or other means of 



iiblir carriage of passengers or freight, or of 



,y cemetery or other benevolent institution, 

 or any public school supported in whole or in 

 purt at public expense or by endowment for 

 I nil, lie nse, should make any distinction as to 

 admission or accommodation therein of any cit- 

 izen of the United States because of race, col- 

 or, or previous condition of servitude, should, 

 on conviction thereof, be fined not less than 

 $100 nor more than $5,000 for each offense; 

 and tin- person or corporation so offending 

 should be liable to the citizens thereby injured 

 in damages to be recovered in an action of 

 debt. 



The second section provided that offenses 

 under this act, and actions to recover damages, 

 might be prosecuted before any territorial, dis- 

 trict, or circuit court of the United States hav- 

 ing jurisdiction of crimes at the place where 

 the offense was charged to have been commit- 

 ted, as well as in the district where the parties 

 might reside, as now provided by law. 



Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, said : " I de- 

 sire briefly to explain to the House the thesis 

 on which this bill proceeds. It is perhaps 

 sufficiently explained in the title 'A bill to 

 protect all citizens in their civil and legal 

 rights.' The bill gives to no man any rights 

 which he has not by law now, unless some 

 hostile State statute has been enacted against 

 him. He has no right by this bill except what 

 every member on this floor and every man in 

 this District has, and every man in New Eng- 

 land has, and every man in England has by the 

 common law and the civil law of the country. 

 Let us examine it for a moment. Every man 

 has a right to go into a public inn. Every 

 man has a right to go into any place of public 

 amusement or entertainment for which a li- 

 cense by legal authority is required. He has a 

 right to ride in ' any line of stage-coaches, rail- 

 road, or other means of public carriage of pas- 

 sengers or freight,' and to be buried in any 

 public cemetery ; or he has a right in any * oth- 

 er benevolent institutions or any public school 

 supported in whole or in part at public ex- 

 pense or by endowment for public use' that 

 is, while he behaves himself and pays the requi- 

 site cost, charges, and fees ; and he has a right 

 of action now against every man who interferes 

 with that right unless there is some state of 

 hostile legislation. 



''Now, then, we propose simply to give to 

 whoever has this right taken away from him 

 the means of overriding that state of hostile 

 legislation, and of punishing the man who takes 

 that right away from him. This is the whole 

 of that bill. There is on amendment offered 

 by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Morey) 

 which I am inclined to accept, or, at least, to 

 permit a vote of the House to be taken upon 



it ; and that is applying the remedies and pen- 

 alties under thoao transactions of the civil rights 

 bill of 1866. 



"Now, then, who shall say that this bill 

 ought not to pass! What is the ground of 

 possible opposition to it? "Whether right or 

 wrong, whether for good or ill, the result of 

 the late war has been that every person born 

 on the soil, or duly naturalized, is a citi/.-u 

 of the United States, entitled to all the rights, 

 privileges, and immunities of a citizen. All 

 legislation, therefore, that seeks to deprive 

 a well-behaved citizen of the United States of 

 any privilege or immunity to be enjoyed, and 

 which he is entitled to enjoy in common with 

 other citizens, is against constitutional enact- 

 ment. But I am not unmindful of the great 

 point to be taken against this bill by its oppo- 

 nents. They will say that it is an ii vasion of 

 State rights ; that the citizens ought to be left 

 to regulate their own domestic affairs in their 

 own way ; that that is in accordance with the 

 resolutions of 1798, and that it is in accordance 

 with the well-understood doctrines upon which 

 this confederation of States was founded. 



" I know, I think, as well as I know any 

 other portion of human knowledge, the length, 

 breadth, and extent of State rights, and I am 

 content to uphold them everywhere ; but I am 

 not content to uphold State wrongs, and the're 

 is the distinction I take. No State has a right 

 to pass any law which inhibits the full enjoy- 

 ment of all the rights she gives to her citizens 

 by discriminating against any class of them 

 provided they offend no law ; and while from 

 my teaching and from my belief I am an old 

 State-rights Democrat, yet State rights are one 

 thing and State wrongs are another, and State 

 wrongs must yield to the Constitution of the 

 United States. 



" Why, sir, if a citizen of the United States, 

 black or white, places his foot on the soil of a 

 foreign country, say England, for instance, and 

 is there deprived of his common rights by force, 

 the whole power of the United States, the Army 

 and Navy, can be brought to bear, and ought to 

 be brought to bear, and will be brought to bear 

 to protect him. * I am an American citizen * 

 is now a prouder cry than was ' I am a Roman 

 citizen,' when it was uttered by the apostle 

 Paul in his defense against unjust imprison- 

 ment. A greater power than Rome is behind 

 him with men, money, and political power, and 

 civil and religious liberty, and with the deter- 

 mination to enforce all in his behalf. 



" Now, shall it be said that it is only on the 

 soil of the United States where a citizen can- 

 not have that power exerted in bis behalf? AH 

 over the world he is entitled to the protection 

 of that power, txcept where? Except if a State 

 can inhibit it on the soil of the United States, 

 and under the flag which he or his father or 

 his children have shed their blood to defend 

 and perpetuate as a symbol of the glory, the 

 honor, and the power of his country. I say. 

 sir, that, the Constitution having given equal 



