secured by the first section of the bill any one of those rights all
criminal and civil cases affecting them will, by the provisions of the
third section, come under the exclusive cognizance of the Federal
tribunals. It follows that if, in any State which denies to a colored
person any one of all those rights, that person should commit a crime
against the laws of a State--murder, arson, rape, or any other
crime--all protection and punishment through the courts of the State are
taken away, and he can only be tried and punished in the Federal courts.
How is the criminal to be tried? If the offense is provided for and
punished by Federal law, that law, and not the State law, is to govern.
It is only when the offense does not happen to be within the purview of
Federal law that the Federal courts are to try and punish him under any
other law. Then resort is to be had to "the common law, as modified and
changed" by State legislation, "so far as the same is not inconsistent
with the Constitution and laws of the United States." So that over this
vast domain of criminal jurisprudence provided by each State for the
protection of its own citizens and for the punishment of all persons who
violate its criminal laws, Federal law, whenever it can be made to
apply, displaces State law. The question here naturally arises, from
what source Congress derives the power to transfer to Federal tribunals
certain classes of cases embraced in this section. The Constitution
expressly declares that the judicial power of the United States "shall
extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution,
the laws of the United States, and treaties made or which shall be made
under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public
ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime
jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a
party; to controversies between two or more States, between a State and
citizens of another State, between citizens of different States, between
citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different