umbull said: "But as I am up, I will refer to
one other point to which the Senator alluded, and that is in regard to
the quotation which I made yesterday from the statute of 1790. I
quoted that statute for the purpose of showing that the provisions in
the bill under consideration, which it was insisted allowed the
punishment of ministerial officers and judges who should act in
obedience to State laws and under color of State laws, were not
anomalous. I read a statute of 1790 to show that the Congress of the
United States, at that day, provided for punishing both judges and
officers who acted under color of State law in defiance of a law of
the United States. How does the Senator answer that? He says that was
on a different subject; the law of 1790 provided for punishing judges
and officers who did an act in violation of the international law,
jurisdiction over which is conferred upon the nation. Let me ask the
Senator from Maryland, if the bill under discussion does not provide
for the punishment of persons who violate a right secured by the
Constitution of the United States? Is a right which a citizen holds by
virtue of the Constitution of his country less sacred than a right
which he holds by virtue of international law?"

Mr. Johnson replied as follows: "It is singular, in my estimation, how
a gentleman with a mind as clear as Mr. Trumbull's, with a
perspicacity that is a little surprising, could have fallen into the
error of supposing that there is any inconsistency between the
doctrine contained in the speech to which he has adverted and the one
which I have maintained to-day. What I said then I say now, that as
far as the United States are concerned, all persons born within the
limits of the United States are to be considered as citizens, and that
without reference to the color or the race; and after the abolition of
slavery the negro would stand precisely in the condition of the white
man. But the honorable member can hardly fail, I think--certainly he
can not when I call his attention to it--to perceive that that has
nothing to do with the question now before the Senate. His bill makes
them citizens of the United States because of birth, and gives them
certain rights within the States."

Mr. Fessenden asked: "Were not your remarks made on this very question
in this bill?"

"No," replied Mr. Johnson; "on another bill." He continued: "What I
maintain is this--and I have never doubted it, because I entertained