No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The first amendment says Congress shall make no law... The rest of the bill of rights does not specify Congress. It applies to everything in the USA.
It applied, from the moment it was adopted, to everything in the USA, and that's what the Founders INTENDED?
That is what you are arguing.
Alright, then, find me the place in the Constitution where it says "Except for slaves", so that we can understand why it is that slaves were deprived of civil rights they always, always had, and that the Founders INTENDED that they should have, from the beginning. Explain to me why everyone thought it necessary after the Civil War to amend the Constitution so that it would be clear that the States could NO LONGER deprive anybody, ex-slaves included, of the rights guaranteed under the federal Constitution?
If you are right, then the slaveholding states were in direct violation of the Constitution from the instant they ratified it, and the Federal government always had the right to intervene with force to enforce the rights of black slaves, and women too.
It didn't mean that.
Federalist papers make it clearer. The Founders meant the Feds.