Of course such a government can exist only in defiance of the National
Constitution, and it is _the duty of Congress_ to interfere against it.
The guaranty is by the United States; therefore Congress must perform
it; and, in the discharge of this eminent duty, it must affix the true
meaning to the requirement, declaring what is a republican government,
and supplying the long-sought definition. Here Congress is sole and
final arbiter, binding all other branches of Government. Let a State
make office hereditary,--let it shut from the courts all who have not
the “blue blood” of ancient ancestry,--let it accord to a favored class
controlling power and influence,--let it apply any discrimination
on account of race or color, whether against Anglo-Saxons, Celts,
or Germans, whether against black or white,--let it do any of these
things, all so plainly inconsistent with constitutional requirement,
and the legislative power of the nation must recall the State from its
aberration, and bring it home to the republican standard.