The judgment of the court was that the words “people of the United States” and “citizens” meant the same thing, both describing “the political body who, according to our republican institutions, form the sovereignty and hold the power and conduct the government through their representatives;” that “they are what we familiarly call the ‘sovereign people,’ and ‘every citizen is one of this people and a constituent member of this sovereignty;’” but, that the class of persons described in the plea in abatement did not compose a portion of this people, were not “included and were not intended to be included under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution;’” that, therefore, they could “claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States;” that, “on the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the government might choose to grant them.” Such were the relations which formerly existed between the government, whether national or State, and the descendants, whether free or in bondage, of those of African blood, who had been imported into this country and sold as slaves. The first section of the Thirteenth Amendment provides that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Its second section declares that “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” This amendment was followed by the Civil Rights Act of April 9, 1866, which, among other things, provided that “all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, and hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” 14 Stat. 27. The power of Congress, in this mode, to elevate the enfranchised race to national citizenship, was maintained by the supporters of the act of 1886 to be as full and complete as its power, by general statute, to make the children, being of full age, of persons naturalized in this country, citizens of the United States without going through the process of naturalization. The act of 1866, in this respect was also likened to that of 1843, in which Congress declared “that the Stockbridge tribe of Indians, and each and every one of them, shall be deemed to be and are hereby declared to be, citizens of the United States to all intents and purposes, and shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, and shall in all respects be subject to the laws of the United States.” If the act of 1866 was valid in conferring national citizenship upon all embraced by its