onstitution
was adopted that power remains now as absolute and as conclusive as it
was when the Constitution was adopted? The bill, therefore, changes
the whole theory of the Government.

"The President, then, I think, is right. I go further than he does. He
expresses a doubt whether Congress has the power; I affirm, with all
deference to the better judgment of the majority of the Senate who
voted for the bill, and to that of the honorable Chairman of the
Committee on the Judiciary, that it is perfectly clear that no such
power exists in Congress as the one attempted to be exercised by the
first section. I hold, with Mr. Justice Curtis--and his opinion to
this day has never been questioned--that citizenship of the United
States consequent upon birth in a State is to depend upon the fact
whether the constitution and laws of the State make the party so born
a citizen of the State.

"But that is not all. This first section has another provision. Not
satisfied with making the parties citizens and clothing them with all
the rights belonging to white citizens by the laws of the States, it
says that they 'shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and
penalties, and to none other.' That invades the jurisdiction of the
States over their criminal code. Congress assumes to define a crime,
and defining a crime gives to its own courts exclusive jurisdiction
over the crime and the party charged with its perpetration. It strikes
at the criminal code of the States. The result, therefore, of the
three provisions in this section is, that contrary to State
constitutions and State laws, it converts a man that is not a citizen
of a State into a citizen of the State; it gives him all the rights
that belong to a citizen of the State; and it provides that his
punishment shall only be such as the State laws impose upon white
citizens. Where is the authority to do that? If it exists, it is still
more obvious that the result is an entire annihilation of the power of
the States. It seems to be the fashion of the hour--I do not know that
my honorable friend from Illinois goes to that extent--to hold to the
doctrine that the sooner every thing is vested in the Government of
the United States the better for the country. It is a perilous
delusion. If such a proposition had been supposed to be found any
where in the Constitution of the United States, it never would have
been adopted by the people; and if it is assumed, or if it is
considered as co