States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign
states, citizens, or subjects." Here the judicial power of the United
States is expressly set forth and defined; and the act of September 24,
1789, establishing the judicial courts of the United States, in
conferring upon the Federal courts jurisdiction over cases originating
in State tribunals, is careful to confine them to the classes enumerated
in the above-recited clause of the Constitution. This section of the
bill undoubtedly comprehends cases and authorizes the exercise of powers
that are not, by the Constitution, within the jurisdiction of the courts
of the United States. To transfer them to those courts would be an
exercise of authority well calculated to excite distrust and alarm on
the part of all the States, for the bill applies alike to all of
them--as well to those that have as to those that have not been engaged
in rebellion.

It may be assumed that this authority is incident to the power granted
to Congress by the Constitution, as recently amended, to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the article declaring that--

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist
within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.


It can not, however, be justly claimed that, with a view to the
enforcement of this article of the Constitution, there is at present any
necessity for the exercise of all the powers which this bill confers.
Slavery has been abolished, and at present nowhere exists within the
jurisdiction of the United States; nor has there been, nor is it likely
there will be, any attempt to revive it by the people or the States.