races. Hitherto every subject embraced in the enumeration of rights
contained in this bill has been considered as exclusively belonging to
the States. They all relate to the internal police and economy of the
respective States. They are matters which in each State concern the
domestic condition of its people, varying in each according to its own
peculiar circumstances and the safety and well-being of its own
citizens. I do not mean to say that upon all these subjects there are
not Federal restraints--as, for instance, in the State power of
legislation over contracts there is a Federal limitation that no State
shall pass a law impairing the obligations of contracts; and, as to
crimes, that no State shall pass an _ex post facto_ law; and, as to
money, that no State shall make anything but gold and silver a legal
tender; but where can we find a Federal prohibition against the power
of any State to discriminate, as do most of them, between aliens and
citizens, between artificial persons, called corporations, and natural
persons, in the right to hold real estate? If it be granted that
Congress can repeal all State laws discriminating between whites and
blacks in the subjects covered by this bill, why, it may be asked, may
not Congress repeal in the same way all State laws discriminating
between the two races on the subjects of suffrage and office? If
Congress can declare by law who shall hold lands, who shall testify, who
shall have capacity to make a contract in a State, then Congress can by
law also declare who, without regard to color or race, shall have the
right to sit as a juror or as a judge, to hold any office, and, finally,
to vote "in every State and Territory of the United States." As respects
the Territories, they come within the power of Congress, for as to them
the lawmaking power is the Federal power; but as to the States no
similar provision exists vesting in Congress the power "to make rules
and regulations" for them.