The bill neither confers nor abridges the rights of anyone but simply declares that in civil rights there shall be equality among all classes of citizens and that all alike shall be subject to the same punishment.

According to Almont Lindsey's 1942 book The Pullman Strike Trumbull took part in defending Eugene Debs and other labor leaders of the American Railway Union who had been convicted for violating a federal court injunction during the 1894 Pullman railroad strike. He practiced law in Greenville Georgia until 1837 when he moved west to Alton Illinois. Butler's hearings and subsequent inquiries revealed evidence that some acquittal votes were acquired by promises of patronage jobs and cash cards.