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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsaa0058 and id is 1 raw text is: THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS. Spss. I. CH. 31. 1866.
CH]AP. XXXI. - An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their CQvil April 9,1866.
Tghts, and furnish the Means of their Vindication.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the leited Who are ait-
States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons born in the zns of the
rnited States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians Umted States,
not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and
such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous con-
dition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the
same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make their rights
0 and obligations
and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit,
purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to
full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of per-
son and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to
like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute,
ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.
SEC. 2. And be itfurther enacted, That any person who, under dolor of Penalty for do-
any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, shall subject, or cause priving any per-
to be subjected, any inhabitant of any State or Territory to the depriva- protected by t s
tion of any right secured or protected by this act, or to different punish- act, by reason of
meat, pains, or penalties on account of such person having at any time Coloror race, &a
been held in a condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
or by reason of his color or race, than is prescribed for the punishment of
white persons, Shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on convic-
tion, shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or
imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the
court.
SEC. 3. And be itfurther enacted, That the district courts of the United Courts of the
States, within their respective districts, shall have, exclusively of the United States to
have urisdiction
courts of the several States, cognizance of all crimes and offences com- ofoffetuestder
mitted against the provisions ot this act, and also, concurrently with the this act.
circuit courts of the United States, of all causes, civil and crimihal, affect-
ing persons who are denied Or cannot enforce in the courts or judicial tri-
bunals of the State or locality where they may be any of the rights secured
to them by the first section of this act; and if any suit or prosecution, Suits com-
menced in State
civil or criminal, has been or shall be commenced in any State court, ourts may he
against any such person, for any cause whatsoever, or against any officer, removed on de-
civil or military, or other person, for any arrest or imprisonment, tres- fendant'smotion.
passes, or wrongs done or committed by virtue or under color of author-
ity derived from this act or the act establishing a Bureau for the relief of
Freedmen and Refugees, and all acts amendatory thereof, or for refusing 1865, oh. 90.
to'do any act upon the ground that it would be inconsistent with this act, xiii. p. 807.
such defendant ,hall have the right to remove such cause for trial to the
proper district or circuit court in the manner prescribed by the Act re-
lating to habeas corpus and regulating judicial proceedings in certain
case&, approved March three, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and all 1865, ob. 87
acts amendatory thereof. The jprisdiction in civil and criminal matters Vol xii p. 755
Jurisdiction to
hereby conferred on the district and circuit courts of the United States be enforced a-
shall be exercised and enforced in conformity with the laws of the United Cordm to the
States, so far as such laws are suitable -to carry the same into effect; but laws oFthe Ut-
ed States, or the
in all cases where such laws are not adapted to the object, or are deficient commonlaw,&o.
in the provisions necessary to furnish suitable remedies and punish offln-
ces against law, the common law, as modified and changed by the consti-
t-tion and statutes of the State iherein the court haing jurisdiction of
the cause, civil or 'criminal, is held, so far as the same is not inconsistent
with the Constitution and laws of the United States shall be extdnded to
and govern said courts in the trial amd disposition of such cause, and, if of
a criminal nature, in the infliction of punishment on the party found guilty.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsaa0058&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)