ERROR TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS.

No. 14 of October Term, 1905.-Submitted October 19, 1905.-Restored to the docket, for oral argument, November 6, 1905.-Argued April 23, 1906.-Decided May 28, 1906.-Opinion withheld until dissent filed, October 24, 1906.

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments operate solely on state action and not on individual action. Unless the Thirteenth Amendment vests jurisdiction in the National Government, the remedy for wrongs committed by individuals on persons of African descent is through state action and state tribunals, subject to supervision of this court by writ of error in proper cases.

Notwithstanding the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the National Government still remains one of enumerated powers, and the Tenth Amendment is not shorn of its vitality. Slavery and involuntary servitude as denounced by the Thirteenth Amendment mean a condition of enforced compulsory service of one to another; and while the cause inciting that amendment was the emancipation of the colored race, it reaches every race and every individual.

The result of the Amendments to the Constitution adopted after the Civil War was to abolish slavery, and to make the emancipated slaves citizens

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and not wards of the Nation over whom Congress retained jurisdiction. This decision of the people is binding upon the courts, and they cannot attempt to determine whether it was the wiser course.

The United States court has no jurisdiction under the Thirteenth Amendment or sections 1978, 1979, 5508, 5510, Revised Statutes, of a charge of conspiracy made and carried out in a State to prevent citizens of African descent, because of their race and color, from making or carrying out contracts and agreements to labor.

ON October 8, 1903, the grand jury returned into the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Arkansas an indictment charging that the defendants, (now plaintiffs in error,) with others, "did knowingly, willfully and unlawfully conspire to oppress, threaten and intimidate Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall and George Shelton, citizens of the United States of African descent, in the free exercise and enjoyment of rights and privileges secured to them and each of them by the Constitution and laws of the United States and because of their having exercised the same, to wit: The said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall and George Shelton, being then and there persons of African descent and citizens of the United States and of the State of Arkansas, had then and there made and entered into contracts and agreements with James A. Davis and James S. Hodges,1 persons then and there doing business under the name of Davis & Hodges as copartners, carrying on the business of manufacturers of lumber at White Hall, in said county, the said contracts being for the employment by said firm of the said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall and George Shelton as laborers and workmen in and about their said manufacturing establishment, by which contracts the said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall and George Shelton were on their part to perform labor and services at

1 Not the plaintiff in error.

said manufactory and were to receive, on the other hand, for their labor and services, compensation, the same being a right and privilege conferred upon them by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof, and being a right similar to that enjoyed in said State by the white citizens thereof, and while the said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall, and George Shelton were in the enjoyment of said right and privilege the said defendants did knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully conspire as aforesaid to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate them in the free exercise and enjoyment of said right and privilege, and because of their having so exercised the same and because they were citizens of African descent, enjoying said. right, by then and there notifying the said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall, and George Shelton that they inust abandon said contracts and their said work at said mill and cease to perform any further labor thereat, or receive any further compensation for said labor, and by threatening in case they did not so abandon said work to injure them, and by thereafter then and there willfully and unlawfully marching and moving in a body to and against the place of business of the said firm while the said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall, and George Shelton were engaged thereat and while they were in the performance of said contracts thereon, the said defendants being then and there armed with deadly weapons, threatening and intimidating the said workmen there employed, with the purpose of compelling them by violence and threats and otherwise to remove from said place of business, to stop said work and to cease the enjoyment of said right and privilege, and by then and there willfully, deliberately, and unlawfully compelling said Berry Winn, Dave Hinton, Percy Legg, Joe Mardis, Joe McGill, Dan Shelton, Jim Hall, and George Shelton to quit said work and