according to the Constitution, is, a sure and undoubted title to equal rights in any and every State in this Union, subject to such regulations as the legislature may rightfully prescribe. If a man be denied full equality before the law, he is denied one of the essential rights to citizenship as a citizen of the United States."
"The first political act of the American people, in their independent sovereign capacity, lays the foundation of our national existence upon this broad proposition: 'That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Here again we have the great threefold division of the rights of freemen, asserted as the rights of man. Rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are equivalent to the rights of life, liberty, and property. These are the fundamental rights which can be taken away only by due process of law, and which can be interfered with, or the enjoyment of which can be modified, only by lawful regulations, necessary or proper for the mutual good of all; and these rights, I contend, belong to the citizens of every free government."[1]
"It is pertinent to observe that the clause of the Constitution referred to, and Justice Washington in his comment on it, both speak of the privileges and immunities of citizens in a State, not of citizens of a State. It is privileges and immunities of citizens&mash;that is, of citizens as such—that are to be accorded to citizens of other States when they are found in any State; or, as Justice Washington says, 'privileges and immunities which are, in their nature, fundamental: which belong, of right, to the citizens of all free governments.'"[2]
"The mischief to be remedied was not merely slavery and its incidents and consequences; but that spirit of insubordination and disloyalty to the national government, which had troubled the country for so many years in some of the States; and that intolerance of free speech and free discussion, which often rendered life and property insecure, and led to much unequal legislation. The amendment was an attempt to give voice to the
