In all our history, in all our experience as a people living under Federal and State law, no such system as that contemplated by the details of this bill has ever before been proposed or adopted. They interfere with the municipal legislation of the State, with the relations existing exclusively between a State and its citizens, or between inhabitants of the same State an absorption and assumption of power by the General Government which, if acquiesced in, must sap and destroy our federative system of limited power...It is another step, or rather stride, towards centralization and concentration of all legislative powers in the national Government.
- Source. Andrew Johnson, His Life and Speeches by Lillian Foster, New York; Richardson & Co.,
1866
The bill gives the federal government power that limits the rights of states.
The bill as proposed threatens the strength of the national government.
The bill is unprecedented and will be difficult to enforce.