made slavery a national matter
with which every citizen in the country had to be concerned. In the
interest of the property right of the master, moreover, the Supreme
Court by the Dred Scott Decision[6] upheld this measure, feeling that
there was in Congress adequate power expressly given and implied to
enforce this regulation in spite of any local opposition that there
might develop against the government acting upon individuals to carry
out this police regulation. The Negro was not a citizen and in his
non-political status could not sue in a Federal court, which for the
same reason must disclaim jurisdiction in a case in which the Negro
was a party.

In the decision of _Ableman_ v. _Booth_[6a] the court in construing
the provision for the return of slaves according to the Fugitive Slave
Law of 1850 further recognized the master's right of property in his
bondman, the right of assisting and recovering him regardless of any
State law or regulation or local custom to the contrary whatsoever.
This tribunal then believed that the right of the master to have his
fugitive slave delivered up on the claim, being guaranteed by the
Constitution, the implication was that the national government was
clothed with proper authority and functions to enforce it. These were
reversed during the Civil War by the nation rising in arms against the
institution of slavery which it had economically outgrown and the
court in the support of the Federal Government exercising its unusual
powers in effecting the political and social upheaval resulting in the
emancipation of the slaves, again became decidedly national in its
decisions.

Out of Rebellion the Negro emerged a free man endowed by the State and
Federal Government with all the privileges and immunities of a citizen
in accordance with the will of the majority of the American people, as
expressed in the Civil Rights Bill and in the ratification of the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. A decidedly militant
minority, however, willing to grant the Negro freedom of body but
unwilling to grant him political or civil rights, bore it grievously
that the race had been so suddenly elevated and soon thereafter
organized a party of reaction to reduce the freedmen to the position
of the free people of color, who before the Civil War had no rights
but that of exemption from involuntary servitude. During the
Reconstruction period when the Negroes figured conspicuously in the
rebuilding