nts with power to annul or evade it. But the
constitutional amendment was ordained for a purpose. It was to secure
equal rights to all persons, and, to insure to all persons the
enjoyment of such rights, power was given to Congress to enforce its
provisions by appropriate legislation. Such legislation must act upon
persons, not upon the abstract thing denominated as State but upon the
persons who are the agents of the State, in the denial of the rights
which were intended to be secured."[16]

The Supreme Court of the United States soon fell under reactionary
influence and gave its judicial sanction to all repression necessary
to establish permanently the reactionaries in the South and to deprive
the Negroes of their political and civil rights. It will be
interesting, therefore, to show exactly how far the United States
Supreme Court, supposed to be an impartial tribunal and generally held
in such high esteem and treated with such reverential fear, has been
guilty of inconsistency and sophistry in its effort to support this
autocracy in defiance of the well established principles of
interpretation for construing the constitutions and laws of States and
in utter disregard of the supremacy of Congress in the exercise of the
powers granted the government by the Constitution of the United
States.

THE RIGHT OF LOCOMOTION

In 1875 Congress passed a measure commonly known as the Civil Rights
Bill, which was supplementary of other measures of the same sort, the
first being enacted April 9, 1866.[17] and reenacted with some
modifications in sections 16, 17, and 18 of the Enforcement Act passed
August 31, 1870.[18] The intention of the statesmen advocating these
measures was to secure to the freedmen the enjoyment of every right
guaranteed all other citizens. The important sections of the Civil
Rights Bill of 1875 follow:

_Section 1._ That all persons within the jurisdiction of the
United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment
of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of
inns, public conveyances on land or water, theatres, and other
places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and
limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens
of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of
servitude.

_Section 2._ That any person who shall violate the foregoing
section by denying to any citizen, excep