urt, Elliott contended, has recognized two classes of
citizenships, state and national, but nowhere is there denied to
Congress the power to prevent a denial of equality of rights, whether
those rights exist by virtue of citizenship of the United States or of
a State. It followed, therefore, that it is within the authority of
Congress to see that no State deny to one class of citizens or
persons, rights which are common to other citizens, unless it can be
shown to be for the good of all, or pursuant to the legitimate
exercise of its police power. Rejecting such classification of the
case at hand and pointing out from the decision of the Slaughter House
Cases the express recognition of Congress to pass such a bill as the
one then under discussion, he concluded that the Constitution
warranted the passage of the bill, the Supreme Court sanctioned it,
and justice demanded it.[53] Elliott submitted also a resolution
directing the Judiciary Committee to report a civil rights bill.[54]

The civil rights of the Negroes constituted the general theme of the
remarks made by Alonzo J. Ransier, a representative from South
Carolina in the Forty-third Congress. In the first instance he spoke
in refutation of the allegements of certain members of the opposition
to the effect that the mass of Negroes did not want civil rights.
Ransier sought mainly to show, by the presentation[55] of data in form
of resolutions from Negro bodies and conventions, the intense desire
of the race for civil rights. During the course of these remarks,
Ransier served notice of his intention to offer to the civil rights
bill an amendment to prevent the disqualification of competent
citizens for service as jurors in any court in the nation because of
"race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The amendment would
provide also for the repeal of all laws, statutes, and ordinances,
national or State, which were devised to discriminate against any
citizen on account of color by the use of the word "white."[56]

The civil rights of the Negro found nowhere a more ardent champion
than James T. Rapier, a representative from Alabama in the Forty-third
Congress. In a speech on the measure supplementary to the civil rights
bill, Rapier made a lucid analysis of the anomalous position then
occupied by the Negro in the United States. Pointing out that Negroes
were accorded political rights without the civil, he deplored the
whole situation and challenged the truth of