PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES OF CITIZENS. The Constitution of the United States nowhere under takes to enumerate the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States. although the Fourteenth Amendment assumes that there are such, and expressly prohibits the States from making or enforcing any law which shall abridge them. The Civil Rights Act declares that they include, among other things, the right to make and enforce contracts, to suit in the courts, to give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to enjoy the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and prop erty. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the noted Slaughterhouse eases, decided in IST2 I 16 Wallace's U. S. Reports. p. 36), under took to enumerate some of the more important of the privileges and immunities of United States citizens. to the opinion of the court. they include a citizen's right of free access to the seat of government of the United States in order to assert any claim he may have upon that Government, to transact any business he may have with it, to seek its protection. to share its offices, to engage in its administrative functions; free access to the seaports. the sub treasuries, land offices. and courts of justice; protection of life, liberty, and property when on the high seas, or within the jurisdiction of a foreign government ; the right to assemble peaceably and petition for redress of grievances; the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; the right. to use the navigable waters of the United States; all rights secured to our citizens by treaties with foreign nations; the right to be come a citizen of any State of the Union by a bona fide residence therein, with the same rights as other citizens of that State, etc. Of course,
no enumeration can be complete, but the one given above is the most exhaustive and authori tative yet made. They include. as the court well says, the rights and privileges which of right belong to the citizens of all free govern ments. In the decision above cited the supreme Court declared that there is a citizenship of the United States distinct from that of the State, and that only the privileges and immunities appertaining to United States citizenship are under the guardianship of the national authority. and that those appertaining to State citizenship must rest for their security and protection upon the action of States. With regard to the latter, time Constitution provides that the citizens of each State shall he entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in time several States. No complete enumeration of these has ever been attempted. Mr. Justice Washington, sitting in the United States Circuit Court. gave the opinion that they might all be comprehended under the following general heads: protection by the Gov ernment, the enjoyment of life and liberty, the right to acquire and possess property of every kind, the right to pursue and obtain happiness and safety, the right to pass from one State to another for the purpose of trade, agriculture, professional pursuits, or otherwise, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the right to main tain actions in the courts, to acquire and hold property, and the right of exemption from higher taxes than are paid by citizens of other States (Carfield v. Coryell, 4 Wash. e.c. 371). See also Cooley, Law, pp. 206-208.