Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1866-03-30

necessary to make them such; If, on the
other hand, such persons are not citi-
zans, as .mag be presumed from the pro-
posed Legislation to make them such,
Gu grave qnastiou presents itself
wlAether, WHARF eleven Of Tic ahirty six
states are Tepresanted in Congress at
this time, il is sound policy to raake our
entire colored population and all other
excepted classes, citizens OF the United
States. Four millions of them have
Just emerged from slavery into freedom.
Can it be reasonably supposed that they
possess the requisite qualifications to
entitle them to all the privileges and
immunities of citizenship of the United
States2 Have the people of the several
States expressed such convfction2 II
may also DO asked whether it 10 necessary
that they should be declared citizens, in
order that they may be secured in the
enjoyment of civil rights, proposed to be-
conferred by the bill. Those rights are
by Federal as well ms by State laws,
secured to all domiciled aliens and for
eiguers, even before the compilation OF
the process Of naturalization, and it may
safely be assumed the same enactments
are sufficient to give like protection and
benefits to those for whom this bill pro-
vides special legislation. Besides the
policy of the Government from It's origin
to the present time seems to have been
that persons who are strangers to and
unfamiliar With our institutions and oar
laws, should pass through a, certain pro-
baton, at the end Of which, before al
lowing the coveted prize, they must give
evidence of their fitness TO receive and
exercise the rights OF citizenship, as
contemplated By the Constitution of the
United States
The hill,in efect, proposes discrimina-
ton against large number ofinteliigent,
worthy and patriotic foreigners, and in
favor Of the negro, to whom, after long
years Of bondage, the avenues Of free
dom and intelligence have just now been
suddenly opened. He must, of necessi>
ty from bis previous nnfortanate condi-
ton Of servitude, be lesa informed as to
the nature and character OF our instita-
tiohs than he who coming from abroad
has, to some extent at least, familiar
ized himself with the principles of a
Government to which he voluntarily en-.
trusts life, liberty, and the pursuits Of
happiness; yet it 10 now proposed, by q
single legislative enactment, to confer
The rights of citizens upon all persons
of African descent, born within the ex-
tended limits Of the United States. while
persons of foreign birth, who make our
land their home, must undergo proba-
tion of Ave years, and can only then
become citizens upon proof that they
are of good moral character, attached
to the principles Of the United States,
and well disposed to the good order and
happiness of the same. as
The first section OF the kill also con-
tains an enumeration of the rights to be
enjoyed by those classes so made citi-
Gems in every State and Territory in the
United States. These rights are to make
and enforce contracts, to sue the parties,
give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease,
sell, hold and convey real and personal
properly, and to have full and equal
benefit Of all laws and proceedings for
the security of persons and property, as
ID enjoyed by white citizens. So too
they are made subject to the same pun
ishment, pains and penalties, common
with white citizens and to none others
Thus perfect equality of the white and
colored races is attempted TO be fixed by
Federal law in every State Of the Union,
over the vast field of State Jurisdiction
covered by these enumerated rights, in
no one Of them can any State exercise
any power of Discrimination between
the different races. In the exercise Of
State policy over matters, exclusively
affecting the people Of each State, it has
frequently been thought expedient to
discriminate between the two races BY
the statutes of some of the States North,
as we'll as South, Il 10 enacted, for i'm
stance, that no white person shall inter-
marry with negro or mulatto. Chan
cellor Kent says, speaking of the blacks,
that marriages between them and the
whites are forbidden in some of the States
where slavery does not exist, and they
prohibited in all slaveholding States by
law, and when not absolutely contrary to
law, they are revolving and regarded as
an offense against public decency.
I do not say that this bill repeats
State laws ON the subject of marriage
between the two races, for, as the whites
are forbidden to intermarry with the
blacks, the blacks can only make such
contracts SO the whites themselves are
allowed to make, and therefore cannot,
under this bill, enter into the marriage
an1 anR wuvsk he II 49,
elimination, however, as an instance of
the. State policy as TO Discrimination,
and to enquire whether, if Congress can
abrogate all State laws of discrimins.
ton between the two races in the mat
ter of real estate, of suits and of con-
tracts generally, it may not also repeal
the State laws as to the contract of
marriage between the two races Hith-
erto every subject embraced in the enu>
meration of rights contained in the bill,
has been considered as exclusively be-
longing to the States. They all relate
to the internal policy and economy of
the respective States. They are mat.
ters which, in each State, concern the
domestic condition of its people, vary
ing in zach according TO its own pecn.
liar circumstances, and the safety and
well being of its own. citizens. I do not
mean to say that upon all these subjects
there are Federal restraints; as for in
stance in the State power Of legislation
over contracts. there lisa Federal limita.
ton that no State shall pass law i'm
pairing the obligations of contracts;
and as TO crimes. that no State shall
pass an ex post faeto law; and as to mo-
nsy, that no State shall make anything but
gold and silver legal tender, but where
can we find Federal prohibition against
the power Of any State to discriminate,
as do moot Of them, between aliens and
citizens, between artificial persons call
ed corporations, aud uaturalized persons
in the right to hold real estatef IF it be
granted that Congress can repeal all
State laws discriminating between whites
and blacks in the subjects covered by
this bill, why it may be asked, may not
Congress repeal in the same way all
State laws, discriminating between the
two races on the subject of suffrage and
Officer If Congress can declare by law
who shall hold lands, who shall testify,
who shall have capacity to make con-