320 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. tain actions of any kind in the Courts of the State ; to take, hold, and dispose of property, either real or personal ; and an exemption from higher taxes or impositions than are paid by the other citizens of the State, — may be mentioned as some of the particular privileges and iin viunities of citizens which are clearly embraced by the general descrip- tion of privileges deemed to be fundamental; to which may be added, the elective franchise as regulated and established by the laws or Con- stitution of the State in which it is to be exercised. These and many others which might be mentioned are strictly speaking privileges and immuniiies, and the enjoyment of them by the citizens of each State in every other State was manifestly calculated (to use the expressions of the preamble of the corresponding provision in the old Articles of Confeder- ation) the better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and inter- course among the people of the different States of the Union." The words *' privileges and immunities," and " life, liberty, and property," come down to us from the time of Magna Charta. For a discussion of the meaning of the word " liberty," see an article entitled " Meaning of the Term * Liberty ' in Federal and State Constitutions," by Charles E. Shattuck, 4 Harvard Law Review, 365. It is sufficient for the present purpose to say that the words used in the Fourteenth Amendment, whether considered historically or simply with reference to their popular signification, are broad enough to allow the United States Supreme Court (when so dis- posed) to give protection to all the fundamental rights of the citizens of the several States. It will not be possible to consider all the cases which have arisen under these Amendments. A large number of them are to be found in Thayer's Cases on Constitutional Law, Part II. It is noticeable that the Supreme Court of the United States at an early day recognized the fact, that unless the broad language of these Amendments, and especially that of the Fourteenth Amendment, could in some way be shorn of its full significance, the fundamental groundwork of the National Government must be considered at once as essentially altered.^ This appears in the language of the court (Mr. Justice Miller delivering the opinion) in the Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. 36, above cited : — 1 See Harvard Law Review, Vol. II. p. 363, Article by E. Irving Smith, entitled
- Legal Aspect of the Southern Question/'
