Very true. This was an example of an activist court clearly contravening the express intent of the framers of the Amendment, who EXPLICITLY made clear, on numerous occaisions, that the purpose of the Amendment was, among other things, to apply the Bill of rights to the states.
The incorporation theory is a manufacture of progressive 20th century SCOTUS rulings.
Wrong on two counts.
First, the doctrine incorporation was rehabilitated in the last two decades of the 19th century by right-wing courts striking down leftist state laws regulating wages and hours, on the grounds that such laws violated the freedom of contract, implicit in the 9th Amendment and incorporated by the 14th.
Second, incorporation was not invented by the courts, it was invented by the framers of the Amendment. The courts, unfortunately, had ignored this intent for three decades.
Indeed, during the discussions held within Congress, some, though not all, did state this very thing. After researching that far, one could assume that was the intent. However two issues arise. That sentiment was not the majority and if you look to the speeches of these same men to their constituents back in their home (as reported by local papers of the time) they stated the exact opposite, one even going as far as to state the 14th would only apply to Southern states and not the more 'enlightened' northern states.
So either they were lying to their own constituency or they were lying in Congress. In either case, not the paragons of virtue. As many of these men were the worthless Radical Republicans immediately following the War, I could care less what their view was. For 60 years, SCOTUS held the standard the 14th Amendment did not incorporate the Bill of Rights.