person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The Protection

in his Civil Rights still a

State Function.

Before the Civil War the fundamental civil rights of the citizen were exclusively within the control and protection of the States. Were they now to come for review within the operation of the United States courts? Were civil rights nationalized? In saying that no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States the Fourteenth Amendment did not intend to transfer the security and protection of all the fundamental civil rights of the citizen from the States to the of the Citizen Federal Government. The powers of the National Government over civil rights were not increased. Of the two citizenships-State and National-the amendment recognized that each had its corresponding and different privileges and immunities. What were the privileges and immunities of State citizenship? Those which are fundamental, which touch the national and inalienable rights of all citizens,—the right to life, liberty, and property, the rights which have at all times been enjoyed by citizens of the several States anterior to all their constitutions, State or National, and which these constitutions were designed to protect and secure. The protection of these rights was not transferred by the war amendments to the Congress of the United States. If Congress had to supervise and guard these rights, it might pass laws in advance limiting and restricting the exercise of legislative power by the State. "Such a construction would constitute this court a The Supreme perpetual censor upon all legislation of the States, on the civil rights of their own citizens, and the Fourwith authority to nullify such as it did not ap- teenth Amendprove. The effect would be to fetter and Slaughterdegrade the State governments by subjecting House Cases. them to the control of Congress, to change radically the

Court on

Citizenship

ment, in the

whole theory of the relations of the State and Federal Governments to each other and of both these governments to the people.'

What are the privileges and immunities of the citizen of the United States which the States are forbidden to abridge? Those which are within the sphere of the United States Government.

Free access to the seat of government, to share its offices, to administer its functions.

Free access to its ports, subtreasuries, land offices, and

courts.

Protection to life, liberty, and property on the high seas and in foreign countries, through diplomatic agencies. To peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances.

The writ of habeas corpus.

To use the navigable waters of the United States.

To become a citizen of any one of the States by a bona fide residence therein.'

One born in the United States and subject to its laws is a citizen of the United States and of the State where he lives. Those naturalized by the laws of the United States are national citizens and citizens of their respective States. If a citizen of one State moves to another, he becomes by that act a citizen of the new State. He does not carry with him the privileges and immunities conferred by the former State, but the new State must allow him all the rights and privileges it allows its own citizens. A citizen of a State is always, or is soon to be, a citizen of the United States, but a person may be a citizen of the United States without being a citizen of one of the States, as he may have his residence in Washington City or in the Territories.

'Chief Justice Chase, United States Supreme Court decision in the Slaughter-House cases.

'The Supreme Court in the Slaughter-House cases.

Thus we see the State is still the guardian of the fundamental civil rights of the citizen, as well as the determiner in the largest extent of the citizen's political privileges. In the American system the State is an ancient and honorable body politic, and its legitimate rights and privileges will continue to be jealously and carefully guarded by all parties in the State.

CHAPTER VIII

ALASKA, THE ISLAND POSSESSIONS, AND THEIR

WH

66

GOVERNMENT

WHEN the Constitution was being made in 1787 the Congress of the old Confederation was wrestling with the problem of providing a civil government for its Western Territory. For 125 years, until the admission of Arizona as a State (February 14, 1912), the American Congress had to deal with the problem of "organizing acts" for Territories and with the question of admitting these Territories to Statehood. Some of the most hotly contested struggles in our history have arisen over such legislation, especially during the notable slavery controversy prior to the Civil War, when the question whether organizing acts" should prohibit slavery in the Territories, or whether more slave States should be admitted, dominated the politics and parties of the time Now all contiguous continental territory has been organized, has passed through its Territorial period, and has been admitted to Statehood. Now Alaska, Hawaii, and the Island possessions have special governments, each for itself, which are briefly presented in this chapter. The famous Ordinance of 1787 was the forerunner of all these The Ordinance organizing acts. That Ordinance was a great and worthy constitution for the Territories for which it was made, and to originate its provisions re• California came in without being organized as a Territory.

of 1787.

quired legal ability and constitutional statesmanship of a high order. This great Organizing Act became famous for several reasons:

1. It gave a form of government to the Northwest Territory that became a precedent for time to come.

2. It guaranteed to the Territory free soil.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall ever exist in said territory."

3. It guaranteed free religion.

No person demeaning himself in an orderly manner shall ever be disturbed or molested on account of his mode of worship or religious belief."

4. It guaranteed free schools.

Religion, morality, and knowledge being essential to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged."

5. It guaranteed civil liberty.

The rights guaranteed in the Virginia Constitutional Bill of Rights of 1776 and in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, coming from the old "English Bill of Rights" of 1688, were incorporated in this great Territorial Act. Free speech, a free press, free assembly, free petition, free trial by a jury of his peers, the habeas corpus, -to all these common rights of the freemen every inhabitant of the Northwest Territory was to be guaranteed.

These wise and beneficent provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 were, in the main, transplanted to our new Territories as these were from time to time organized for civil government by the Congress of the United States. While these great guarantees were not secured in law by the Ordinance of 1787 to the Old Northwest except as they