What right had the other State to pass a law that passengers should be kept separate, on account of race or color? How could such a law have been constitutional? The Civil Rights Act applied to all States, and to both sides of the lines between all States, and produced absolute uniformity--and did not put the captain to the trouble of dividing his passengers. The Court further said: "Uniformity in the regulations by which the carrier is to be governed from one end to the other of his route, is a necessity in his business." The uniformity had been guaranteed by the Civil Rights Act, and the statute of the State of Louisiana was in exact conformity with the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act. The Court also said: "And to secure uniformity, Congress, which is untrammeled by State lines, has been invested with the exclusive power of determining what such regulations shall be." Yes. Congress has been invested with such power, and Congress has used it in passing the Civil Rights Act--and yet, under these circumstances, the Court proceeds to imagine the difficulty that a captain would have in dividing his passengers as he crosses a State line, keeping them apart until he reaches the line of another State, and then bringing them together, and so going on through the process of dispersing and huddling, to the end of his unfortunate route. It is held by the Supreme Court, that uniformity of duties is essential to the carrier, and so essential, that Congress has control of the whole matter. If uniformity is so desirable for the carrier that Congress takes control, then uniformity as to the rights of passengers is equally desirable; and under the 13th and 14th Amendments, Congress has the exclusive power to state what the rights, privileges and immunities of passengers shall be. So that, in 1877, the Supreme Court decided that the _States could not_ legislate; and in 1883, that _Congress could not_, unless the State had. If Congress controls interstate commerce upon the navigable waters, it also controls interstate commerce upon the railways. And if Congress has exclusive jurisdiction in the one case, it has in the other. And if it has exclusive jurisdiction, it does not have to wait until States take action. If it does not have to wait until States take action, then the Civil Rights Act, in so far as it refers to the rights of passengers going from one State to another, must be constitutional. It must be remembered, in this discussion, that the 8th Section of the Constitution conferred upon Congress the power: "To make all laws that may be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States." So the 2nd Section of the 13th Article provides: "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." The same language is used in the 14th and 15th Amendments.