People are slow to comprehend the
change which has been effected by the decision as to State rights. One,
claims that only the negro, or persons of African descent, were affected
by it. Others claim, and among them, some prominent Republicans, that
every civil right is by these amendments, thrown under national control.
Recently, two or three suits have come before the United States on this
apprehension. One of these, known as the Slaughter House Case, came up
from New Orleans in the suit of certain persons against the State of
Louisiana. A permit had been given certain parties to erect sole
buildings for slaughter, and in other ways control that entire business
in the city of New Orleans for a certain number of years. A suit upon it
was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, on the ground of
the change in the power of States, by, and through the last three
amendments, and on the supposition that all the civil power of the
States had thus been destroyed.
The Court decided it had no jurisdiction, though in its decision it
proclaimed the far-reaching character of these amendments. In reference
to the Thirteenth Amendment, the Court used this language:
"We do not say that no one else but the negro can share in this
protection.
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