_according to the laws
or Constitutions of the States_, and never in _defiance_ of them." To
sustain this theory, he read from a number of authorities, and finally
remarked:

"This bill rests upon a theory utterly inconsistent with, and in
direct hostility to, every one of these authorities. It asserts the
right of Congress to regulate the laws which shall govern in the
acquisition and ownership of property in the States, and to determine
who may go there and purchase and hold property, and to protect such
persons in the enjoyment of it. The right of the State to regulate its
own internal and domestic affairs, to select its own local policy, and
make and administer its own laws, for the protection and welfare of
its own citizens, is denied. If Congress can declare what rights and
privileges shall be enjoyed in the States by the people of one class,
it can, by the same kind of reasoning, determine what shall be enjoyed
by every class. If it can say who may go into and settle in and
acquire property in a State, it can also say who shall not. If it can
determine who may testify and sue in the courts of a State, it may
equally determine who shall not. If it can order the transfer of suits
from the State to the Federal courts, where citizens of the same State
alone are parties, in such cases as may arise under this bill, it can,
by parity of logic, dispense with State courts entirely. Congress, in
short, may erect a great centralized, consolidated despotism in this
capital. And such is the rapid tendency of such legislation as this
bill proposes."

On the succeeding day, March 9th, Mr. Wilson having demanded the
previous question, on the motion to recommit, was entitled to the
floor, but yielded portions of his time to Mr. Bingham and Mr.
Shellabarger.

The former had moved to amend the motion to recommit, by adding
instructions "to strike out of the first section the words, 'and there
shall be no discrimination in civil rights or immunities among
citizens of the United States, in any State or Territory of the United
States, on account of race, color, or previous condition of slavery,'
and insert in the thirteenth line of the first section, after the word
'right,' the words, 'in every State and Territory of the United
States.' Also, to strike out all parts of said bill which are penal,
and which authorize criminal proceedings, and in lieu thereof to give
to all citizens injured by denial or violation of any of the other