Argument for Plaintiffs in Error. camp and under custody. The People v. Godfrey, 17 Johns. 225. Outside of the places named, it was conceived the States could very well take care of all crimes committed within their territory; that their peace and dignity were offended by all such crimes outside of those places, and in fact there was no peace and dignity of the United States to be offended save and except in such places. Among the first and most prominent departures from or innovations upon this rule was the case of Tennessee v. Davis, 100 U. S. 257, and that was sustained in an act of Congress. Rev. Stat. sec. 643, and the act of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. p. 401. There was a special act giving this jurisdiction by removal from the state court, but the path to that result was not smooth and open, nor by any means discernible to all; for there is a dissent by Justices Clifford and Field of great energy and power, which is believed by many of the legal profession to be the law of the case. But there was an express act giving this jurisdiction, so far as Congress had the power to give it. But here, as we shall see, it is quite otherwise. Some other cases have occurred since Tennessee v. Davis on special statutes; but in each of them firm and unyielding opposition by a portion of the court was made. It will serve no useful purpose to refer to them here, as the court is familiar with them, and besides they rest upon statutes whose language is not doubtful conceding the power of Congress to enact them. Then comes the question, "Why could not Texas punish these people for committing assaults, aggravated assaults, or murder within her unquestioned and unquestionable boundaries?" Her criminal code, it seems, is most ample for this purpose. It would be assuming too much to say she would not try to do it. But if this unfortunately were so, jurisdiction would not come to the United States court because Texas failed to do her duty. This will not stand the test. There must be some express law giving the jurisdiction, and that law must be constitutional. These men who were assaulted were in custody of the marshal, but that did not affect the jurisdiction of the State; whatever crime was committed was against Argument for Plaintiffs in Error. Texas. Godfrey (17 Johns. ubi supra) was, as the man he stabbed was, in the military service of the government, and the deceased was in camp and in custody too. In casting about for reasons for taking these matters out of the Texas courts and from the Texas authorities it would appear from the indictment and from the elaborate charge of the trial court that sections 5508 and 5509 Rev. Stat. are resorted to as allowing this. It would be tedious to go over and review the history of these sections, the reasons and purposes of their enactment. This has been done so often by this court in cases of the gravest character that no one at all up in the history of the country can well be ignorant on the subject. But it is perfectly safe to say, no such right and privilege as set forth here ever figured in the minds of the legislators in making these statutes. They came into life for different uses and objects entirely. In a recent case before Justice Lamar in Georgia, these statutes are discussed with great clearness and accuracy in an opinion reviewing all the cases on this subject, and he points out most distinctly the scope and meaning of those acts, as reaching and applying to matters altogether foreign to anything disclosed in and by this record. The right in that case was that of a witness to appear and testify before the grand jury of a Federal court — a right- if a right, and not a duty, possibly as high and important as the right of a person or persons to be tried, who were held on commitments as alleged. In that case Justice Lamar demonstrates the privilege or right of a witness to appear, and it is not such as comes within the purview of the acts referred to. We adopt his reasoning without attempting to add to it. He says (48 Fed. Rep. 78, 83, 84): "The Congress of the United States clearly possesses the constitutional power and is charged with the constitutional duty to protect all agencies of the Federal government, including the courts, their officers and all persons whose attendance is necessary in the proceedings of those courts, such as parties, witnesses and jurors. That power and duty of protection have been exercised and performed with regard to parties, witnesses and jurors in section 5406 of the Revised Statutes. Argument for Plaintiffs in Error. "With respect to a prosecution for crime pending in a Federal court, or in a United States grand jury, the right which this particular section designs to protect is a public right, i.e. the right of the United States to have its witnesses and their testimony, and to have them protected in going to and returning from the court. The wrong punished in such a case is a public wrong, and its correlative is a public right.” "Section 5508 presupposes that the right and privilege,' involved has already been secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and therefore it is necessary to turn to them for the definition of the right in this indictment charged to be violated, in order to determine whether the indictment is authorized by the provisions of that section. "Fortunately we are not without judicial construction of these provisions and of other statutes relating to cognate subjects, as well as judicial expositions of the constitutional amendments, which, it is contended, contained the authority for their enactment. Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36; United States v. Cruikshank, 1 Woods, 308; United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542; United States v. Reese, 92 U. S. 214; United States v. Harris, 106 U. S. 629; Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 303; Ex parte Virginia, 100 U. S. 339; Bradwell v. The State, 16 Wall. 130; Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516; Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 3; Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651; United States v. Waddell, 112 U. S. 76." "In these decisions of the Supreme Court it has been found necessary to pass upon the construction of these and many other sections of the Revised Statutes in their application to the varying facts presented by each case. But they all show the steady adherence of that court to the fundamental principles enunciated by Mr. Justice Bradley in the case of The United States v. Cruikshank, 1 Woods, 308, and reiterated by the Supreme Court of the United States in the same case on a writ of error. They all agree that, aside from the extinction of slavery and the declaration of national citizenship, the constitutional amendments are restrictive upon the power of the general government and the action of the States, and that there is nothing in their language or spirit which indicates Argument for Plaintiffs in Error. that they are to be enforced by Congressional enactments, authorizing the trial, conviction and punishment of individuals for individual invasions of individual rights, unless committed under state authority; that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed immunity from state laws and state acts invading the privileges and rights specified in the amendment, but conferred no rights upon one citizen as against another; that the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment authorizing Congress to enforce its guarantees by legislation means such legislation as is necessary to control and counteract state abridgment, and that the protection and enforcement of the rights of citizens of the United States provided in the Enforcement Act of 1870 and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 refer only to such rights as are granted by and dependent on the Constitution and the valid and constitutional laws of the United States." "But there is another view which demonstrates that this section does not sustain the indictment in this case. We cannot present it more forcibly than by quoting the following from the opinion of the Supreme Court, delivered by Mr. Justice Bradley in the Civil Rights Cases, 109 U. S. 3, 16, 17, 18. Referring to the provisions as above quoted, and other subsequent provisions in the statute from which the section was taken, the learned justice says: "This law is clearly corrective in its character, intended to counteract and furnish redress against state laws and proceedings, and customs having the force of law, which sunction the wrongful acts specified. In the Revised Statutes, it is true, a very important clause, to wit, the words, "any law, statute, ordinance, regulation or custom to the contrary notwithstanding," which gave the declaratory section its point and effect, are omitted; but the penal part by which the declaration is enforced, and which is really the effective part of the law, retains the reference to state laws, by making the penalty apply only to those who should subject parties to a deprivation of their rights under color of any statute, ordinance, custom, etc., of any State or Territory, thus preserving the corrective character of the legislation. Rev. Stat. §§ 1977, 1978, 1979, In this connection, it is proper to state that 5510. . Opinion of the Court. civil rights, such as are guaranteed by the Constitution against state aggression, cannot be impaired by the wrongful acts of individuals unsupported by state authority in the shape of laws, customs or judicial or executive proceedings. The wrongful act of an individual, unsupported by any such authority, is simply a private wrong, or a crime of that individual; an invasion of the rights of the injured party, it is true, whether they affect his person, his property or his reputation, but if not sanctioned in some way by the State, or not done under state authority, his rights remain in full force, and may presumably be vindicated by resort to the laws of the State for redress. An individual cannot deprive a man of his right to vote, to hold property, to buy and sell, to sue in the courts or to be a witness or a juror; he may by force or fraud interfere with the enjoyment of the right in a particular case; he may commit an assault against the person, or commit murder, or use ruffian violence at the polls, or slander the good name of a fellow-citizen, but unless protected in these wrongful acts by some shield of state law or state authority he cannot destroy or injure the right; he will only render himself amenable to satisfaction or punishment, and amenable therefor to the laws of the State where the wrongful acts are committed. Hence, in all those cases where the Constitution seeks to protect the rights of the citizen against discriminative and unjust laws of the State by prohibiting such laws, it is not individual offences, but abroga tion and denial of rights, which it denounces, and for which it clothes the Congress with the power to provide a remedy."" "And the remedy to be provided must necessarily be predi cated upon that wrong. It must assume that in the case provided for, the evil or wrong actually committed rests upon some state law or state authority for its excuse and perpetration."" Mr. Solicitor General for defendant in error. MR. JUSTICE GRAY, after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court. The plaintiffs in error were indicted on sections 5508 and |