s no power to intervene and set
aside a State law, and give the citizen protection under the laws of
Congress in the courts of the United States; that at the mercy of the
States lie all the rights of the citizens of the United States; that
while it was deemed necessary to constitute a great Government to
render secure the rights of the people, the framers of the Government
turned over to the States the power to deprive the citizen of those
things for the security of which the Government was framed. In other
words, the little State of Delaware has a hand stronger than the
United States; that revolted South Carolina may put under lock and key
the great fundamental rights belonging to the citizen, and we must be
dumb; that our legislative power can not be exercised; that our courts
must be closed to the appeal of our citizens. That is the doctrine
this House of Representatives, representing a great free people, just
emerged from a terrible war for the maintenance of American liberty,
is asked to adopt.

"The gentleman from Ohio tells the House that civil rights involve all
the rights that citizens have under the Government; that in the term
are embraced those rights which belong to the citizen of the United
States as such, and those which belong to a citizen of a State as
such; and that this bill is not intended merely to enforce equality of
rights, so far as they relate to citizens of the United States, but
invades the States to enforce equality of rights in respect to those
things which properly and rightfully depend on State regulations and
laws. My friend is too sound a lawyer, is too well versed in the
Constitution of his country, to indorse that proposition on calm and
deliberate consideration. He knows, as every man knows, that this bill
refers to those rights which belong to men as citizens of the United
States and none other; and when he talks of setting aside the school
laws, and jury laws, and franchise laws of the States, by the bill now
under consideration, he steps beyond what he must know to be the rule
of construction which must apply here, and, as the result of which
this bill can only relate to matters within the control of Congress."

Comparing Mr. Bingham's proposed amendment with the original bill, Mr.
Wilson said: "What difference in principle is there between saying
that the citizen shall be protected by the legislative power of the
United States in his rights by civil remedy and declaring that he