Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/517

 IN RB TIBURCIO PARROTT. 509 �as îs enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penaltîes, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other," �It wiil be Been that in the latter clause the words are "any person," and net "any citizen," and prevents any state from depriving "any person" of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or from denying to "any person within its iurisdiction the equal protection of the law." In the particu- lars covered by these provisions it places the right of every person within the jurisdiotion of the state, be he Christian or heathen, civilized or barbarous, Caucasian or Mongolian, upon the same secure footing and under the same protection as are the rights of citizens themselves under other provisions of the con- stitution ; and, in consonance with these provisions, the statute enacts that "ail persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shaU have the same right in every. state and territory to make and enforce contracts, ♦ » * and to the fuM and equal henefit of ail laws and proceedings for the security of per- sons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens." Chinese re- siding in California, in pursuance of the treaty stipulations, are "persons within the jurisdiction of the state," and "of the United States," and therefore within the protection of these provisions. And contracts to labor, siich as ail others make, are contracts which theij have a "right to make and enforce," and the laws under which others' rights are protected are the laws to which they wre entitled to the "equal henefit," "as is enjoyed by white citizens." �It would seem that no argument should be required to show that the Chinese do not enjoy the equal henefit of the laws with citizens, or "the equal protection of the laws," where the laws forbid their laboring, or making and enforc- ing contracts to labor, in a very large field of labor which is open, without limit, let or iiindrance, to ail citizens, and ail other foreigners, without regard to nation, race, or color. Yet, in the face of these plain provisions of the national con- stitution and statutes, we find, both in the constitution and laws of a great state and member of this Union, just such prohibitory provisions and enactments discriminating against ��� �