, in the
clear exercise of his function as a judge, not acting
ministerially, but judicially, shall decide contrary to this
Federal law. In other words, when a State judge, acting upon
a question involving a conflict between a State law and a
Federal law, and bound, according to his own judgment and
responsibility, to give an impartial decision between the
two, comes to the conclusion that the State law is valid and
the Federal law is invalid, he must not follow the dictates
of his own judgment, at the peril of fine and imprisonment.
The legislative department of the Government of the United
States thus takes from the judicial department of the States
the sacred and exclusive duty of judicial decision, and
converts the State judge into a mere ministerial officer,
bound to decree according to the will of Congress.

"It is clear that, in States which deny to persons whose
rights are 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 the 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 the 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, wherever it can be made to apply, displaces
State law.

"The question here naturally arises, from what source
Congre