Chap. 1.—JOINT RESOLUTIONS Reaffirming the Third Resolution
of the Conservative Platform of 1878, and Protesting against the pas-
sage of the Civil Rights Bill, now pending in the Congress of the
United States.

Agreed to January 5, 1874.

Resolved by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
sentiments embodied in the third resolution of the platform
of the conservative party of Virginia in the late election,
ratified as they have been by an unprecedented popular ma-
jority, and commended to the favorable consideration of the
general assembly by the governor of Virginia in his inaugu-
ral message, be, and the same are hereby reaffirmed; and
this general assembly doth declare, that there is no purpose
upon their part, or upon the part of the people they repre-
sent, to cherish captious hostility to the present administra-
tion of the federal government, but that they will judge it
impartially by its official acts, and will cordially co-operate
in every measure of the administration which may be benefi-
cent in its design and calculated to promote the welfare of
the people and cultivate sentiments of good will between the
different sections of the Union.

2. That this general assembly recognizes the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as a
part of that instrument, and desire in good faith to abide by
its provisions as expounded by the supreme court of the
United States. That august tribunal recently held, after the
most mature consideration, that it is only the privileges and
immunities of the citizen of the United States that are placed
by this clause under the protection of the Constitution, and
that the privileges and immunities of the citizen of the state,
“whatever they may be, are not intended to have any addi-
tional protection by this paragraph of the amendment,” and
» that the “entire domain of the privileges and immunities of
. citizens of the state, as above defined, lay within the consti-
- tutional and legislative power of the states, and without that
; of the federal government.

3. That this amendment, thus construed by the highest
judicial tribunal of the country, is the supreme law of the
land—a law for rulers and people—and should be obeyed and

respected by all the co-ordinate departments of the govern-
ment.
1 4, That the bill now before congress, known as the civil
rights bill, is in violation of this amendment as interpreted
n by the supreme court of the United States; is an infringe-
ment on the constitutional and legislative powers of the
states; is sectional in its operation, and injurious alike to the
- white and colored population of the southern states; and
. that its enforced application in these states will prove de-
- structive of their systems of education, arrest the enlighten-
“ment of the colored population, (in whose improvement the
eople of Virginia feel a lively interest,) produce continual
irritation between the races, counteract the pacification and
development now happily progressing, repel immigration,
groatiy augment emigration, reopen wounds now almost
ealed, engender new political asperities, and paralyze the
power and influence of the state government for duly con-
trolling and promoting domestic interests and preserving
internal harmony.

5. That the people of Virginia, through their representa-
tives, enter their earnest and solemn protest against this bill,
and instruct their senators and request their representatives
in the congress of the United States, firmly, but respectfully,
to oppose its passage, not only for the reasons herein ex-
pressed, but as a measure ealculated to arrest the growing
sentiments of concord and harmony between the northern
and southern states of the Union.

_ 6. That the governor cause a copy of these resolutions to
“ be forwarded to each of our senators and representatives in
the congress of the United States, with the request that they

* present the same in their respective bodies.

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