"
The first section of the bill also contains an enumeration of the rights
to be enjoyed by these classes so made citizens "in every State and
Territory in the United States." These rights are "to make and enforce
contracts; to sue, be parties, and give evidence; to inherit, purchase,
lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property," and to have
"full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of
person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens." So, too, they are
made subject to the same punishment, pains, and penalties in common with
white citizens, and to none other. Thus a perfect equality of the white
and colored races is attempted to be fixed by Federal law in every State
of the Union over the vast field of State jurisdiction covered by these
enumerated rights. In no one of these can any State ever exercise any
power of discrimination between the different races. In the exercise of
State policy over matters exclusively affecting the people of each State
it has frequently been thought expedient to discriminate between the
two races.
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