not be construed to cover the wrongful individual acts of their citizens. We have already suggested that the responsibility and duty of altering this state of affairs rests upon Congress, not upon the courts; and Congress has not seen fit to remedy the evil through the medium of corrective legislation."
"But pray, sir," said the student, "will you be good enough to indulge me further, and explain, what possible motive the inferior class has in depriving the meekest of citizens of their immunities and privileges?"
"Except as their motives and intents are evinced by actions, the wrong-doers," answered the Chief Justice, "are rarely susceptible of judicial cognizance; they are offenders in the realm of conscience, and are responsible to the church and priest rather than to the state and court. I sometimes incline to the opinion, however, that there is an instinct in mankind similar to that which gives the lower order of animals a certain gratification in asserting the arrogance of their strength against the 'tainted wether of the flock, meetest for death.' To their deepest shame, I confess, observation leads me to the further lamentable conclusion, that this cowardly, invidious arrogance is oftenest exhibited, with entire impunity, towards a helplessly unfortunate fellow-man. It is true, sir, that the most aggressive enemies of civil rights in America are not confined to these public servants of whom I have spoken, but their hostility to our constitutional law and national policy is more open and avowed. In their interpretation of the terms 'citizen,' 'civil rights,' 'immunities,' and 'privileges,' in their gauging of constitutional law and of our national polity, these creatures of the State regard themselves as chartered libertines, to be guided by no loftier standard than dollars and cents can afford. They gravely urge that their business cannot be conducted in conformity with the civil-rights amendment—which they nevertheless confess is the supreme law of the land—without incurring the risk of losing those customers who in their hearts are opposed to the carrying out of this provision of constitutional law."
The student for some moments regarded the Chief Justice with impassioned, almost irrepressible earnestness, in a manner
