The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-20 00:00:00

The Civil Rig'

►ts Bi

and

Senate.

the American

It is already known that the American Senate on
the 6th passed the Civil Rights Bill over the Presi-
dent's Veto by a vote of 33 to 15. The bill origi-
nally passed the Senate on Feb. 2 by a vote of 33 to
12, five members being absent. It passed the
House of Representatives on March 13, the vote
being 111 in favour to 38 against (not quite two-
thirds) with 34 members not voting.
Before the vote was taken, Mr. Saulsbury, a
Democratic Senator from Delaware, took the floor
and said, " I rise to say, sir, that in my judgment
the passage of this bill is an inauguration of revolu-
tion. It is well, sir, that the American people
should take warning and set their house in order,
for it is impossible that the people will patiently
submit to it. Heaven knows that we have had
enough of bloodshed, enough of mourning in every
household. There are too many new-made graves
for any one to wish to see more. Attempt to exe-
cute this law within any State of this Union and
in my judgment this country will again be plunged
into all the horrors of civil war. In my own
State, an humble State in point of numbers, but
a State of gallant sons, your law will never
be observed by the judiciary of that State,
most of them of the Republican party. There
is not, I say, a Republican judge, we never had a
judge so dead to the teachings of the great lumi-
naries of the law, as to attempt to enforce such a
flagrantly unconstitutional law or act as this. I
shall not again enter upon the constitutionality or
unconstitutionality of the act. But, sir, if it be not
grossly, palpably, flagrantly, unconstitutional, then
five-and-twenty years of some diligent study of the

law have availed me nothing." In conclusion, Mr.
Saulsbury predicted that the passage of this bill
would lead to bloodshed, war, and disunion.
" Now came the thrilling moments;" says one ac-
count, " which were to witness the decision of the
Senate upon the question before them. Every one,
as if impressed with the solemnity and gravity of
the occasion, was hushed into a portentous silence
while the President made the announcement,
Shall the bill be passed, the objections of the
President of the United States to the contrary, not-
withstanding ?' The roll was called, and each
Senator boldly answered in accordance with his con-
victions. When the name of Senator Morgan was
given, and he replied in the affirmative, there was
great sensation and clapping of hands both on the
floor and in the galleries. When the result of the
vote and the passage of the bill was stated by the
President there was an outburst of applause, espe-
cially in the galleries, only surpressed by a volun-
tary dispersion of the crowd. In this portion of
the chamber the negroes were particularly moved,
and gave vent to their feeling by cheers. This com-
pleted the excited deliberations upon one of the
most important actions which has yet emanated
from the Congress of the United States since the
close of the rebellion."

On the motion of Mr. Trumbull, the Secretary
of the Senate was ordered to communicate to the
House a copy of the Veto Message, together with the
result of the Veto, above given.
The Boston Advertiser of the 7th, commenting
upon the veto, says :—" The occasional glimpses
which are obtained as time goes on of the history of
what Mr. Johnson has termed the ' warfare' between
himself and Congress do not exhibit the President
as the party attacked. Mr. Trumbull, for instance,
in his speech on the Civil Rights Bill the other day,
gave a scrap of its history which shows that the
friends of the measure were desirous of anything
rather than an issue with the President. The bill
was prepared in conformity with what were supposed
to be his views, it was privately shown to him before
action was taken upon it, and he was invited by
those with whom he had long been acting in political
harmony to state any objections which he might
have to it. It is well known also that the
Freedmen's Bureau Bill was shown to him before
action was taken upon it, and that in that case too
his conduct was such as to imply assent. In both
cases the gentlemen who dealt with the President
might perhaps be accused of subservience to the
executive will, for which the condition of the
country could be the only justification ; it might
be said that they lowered the dignity of their own
branch of the government by this anxious consul-
tation with another ; but they are at all events
entirely cleared from the charge of courting an issue
with the President. A few words said in private
by him would probably in both instances have pre-
vented the final collision ; and the responsibility for
what happened, the suspicion of desiring that it
should happen, must rest upon him who omitted to
say those few words, and not upon those who gave
him the opportunity. Whatever may finally prove
to be the motives which led the President to enter
upon this warfare, a grievous miscalculation of his
strength will unquestionably be found to have been
one of his principal mistakes. Nothing can be more
significant than the dead failure of the movement
which began on the 22d of February. That amaz-
ing despatch which said among other things that
the ' President's speech was triumphant,' and the
country was happy,' would not have seemed
quite so flat had a little real success justified its
complacency. But for the hundredth time it has
proved that it is one thing to get up
officers,
and Institute with all the New World for.
influence
which quite another to exercise the popular
wards mply. All
which such an array of names see a meeting at
President in his war-
fareing a strong support for the
Connecticut for him, it
that was done then was so little to. cons.olidat-
that it could not save
Civil Bill, and it
were then his sup-
cpoourtlderns ofit
remvenagkaeienpstthtohsee who
Rights
could not prevent the country from giving its sym-
pathyly to the majority of the Senate
who took their stand up
on that bill against his Veto.
So far then the w
unmistakab
sta
or
ft
New aynoiriks t
pakolein-
trust in the sang
sanguineassurances air
ticians, and the movement which has never assumed
anything more than the dimensions of a New York
diversion, have been dead failures, so far as con-
cerns any positive effect in the restoration of the
Southern States. Negative influence for evil they
have had, no doubt, in abundance. They have re-
tarded the work of reorganisation which might
otherwise have been set upon a secure basis before
this, and have postponed the day when all the States
shall be represented in Congress • but achievements
of this sort need not be felt as any great encourage-
ment to Mr. Johnson to persevere in the ill-advised
enterprise which he has undertaken."