"My study of the historical events that culminated in the Fourteenth Amendment, and the expressions of those who sponsored and favored, as well as those who opposed its submission and passage, persuades me that one of the chief objects that the provisions of the Amendment's first section, separately, and as a whole, were intended to accomplish was to make the Bill of Rights, applicable to the states."And that still leaves me with my question: why, then, didn't these framers simply come right out and say it in the amendment itself? It wouldn't have been very difficult for them to do. Why all the beating around the bush?
IMO, they didn't 'beat around the bush'. - And it's fairly simple language, for its day. - Justice Black agrees, & makes a very understandable statement to that effect.
I would bet your problem with the 14th is what it says, -- more than how its said. - True?
They did say it, and Blacks paragraph explains why.
- If you don't believe Black, read the ratification debates themselves. They're on the web.