The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-03
Veto of the Civil Rights Bill.

/ regret that the bill which has passed
both Houses of Congress, entitled: can
Act to protect all persons i'll the United
States in their civil rights, and furnish
the means for .her vindication," contains
provisions which l cannot approve, con-
slstently with my sense OF duty to the
whole people, and my obligations to the
Constitution of the United States am,
therefore, constrained to return it to the
Senate, the house in which it originated,
with my objections to its becoming law.
BY the first sections of the bill, all per-
sons born in the United States and not
subjects to any foreign power, excluding
indians not taxed, are declared to be citi-
zens Of the United States.
This provision comprehends the Chinese
OF the Pacific States, Indians subject to
taxation, and the people called Gipsies, as
well as the entire race designated blacks.
people of color, negroes, mulattoes, and
persons Of African blood. Every individual
Of these races horn in tho United States
is by the bill made q citizen OF the United
States. 1t does not purport to declare or
confer any other right of citizenship than
Federal citizenship. 1t does not purport
us citizens of States except that which
may result from their status as citizens Of
the United States.
The power to confer the right Of State
citizenship is just as exclusively with the
several States as the power to confer the
right of Federal citizenship is with Con-
gress.
The right OF Federal citizenship thus to
be conferred on the several excepted races
before mentioned is now, for the first time,
proposed to be given by law. If, as is
claimed by many, all persons who are ma
tive born already, are. by yirtne OF the
the passage of the pending bill cannot be
necessary to make them such. If, on the
other hand, such persons arc not citizens,
as may be assumed from the proposed
legislation to make them such, the grave
question presents itself whether, when
eleven of the thirty-six States arc unrep-
resented in Congress, at this time it is
sound policy to make our entire colored
population, and all other excepted classes,
citizens of the United States? Four mil
lions of them have just emerged from
slavery into freedom. Can it bereasonably
supposed that they possess the requisite.
qualifications to cntitle them to all the
privileges and immunities of citizens of
the United Statesl Have the people of the
several States expressed such convic-
ton? 1t may also be asked whether it is
necessary that they should be declared
citizens in order that they may be secured
IN the enjoyment of civil rights? Those
rights proposed to be conferred by the bill
are, by Federal as we'll as State laws, Sc
cured to all domiciled aliens and.foreign-
ers even before the completion OF the pro-
cess of naturalization; and it may safely
be assumed that the same enactments arc
sufficient to give like protection and bene-
fits TO those for whom this bill provides
speci.a. legislation Besides, the po,i;oy Of
the Government, from its origin to the
present time, seems to have been that per-
sons who are strangers to, and unfamiliar
with, our institutions and our laws, should
pass through certain probation, at the
end OF which, before obtaining the coveted
fitness to receive and to exercise the rights
OF citizens, us contemplatedby the Consti-
tuition of the United States. The bill, in
effect, proposes Il discrimination against
large numbers of intelligent, worthy and
patr1otie foreigners, and in favor of the
negro, to whom, after long years of bond
age, tho avenues to freedom and intelli-
gence have now been suddenly opened.
he must, of necessity, from his previous
unfortunate condition of servitudc, be less
informed as to the nature and character of
our institutions than he who, coming from
abroad, has, to some extent, at least,
Ianlllarlzed himself with the principles Of
trusts .slfc, liberty and the pursuit of hap
plness. Yet it is now proposed by sin
gle legislative enactment to confer the
rights OF citizens upon all persons of Afri-
can descent born within the extended
limits N the United States, while persons
OF foreign birth who make our land their
nome, must undergo a probation Of five
years, and can only then become citizens
upon proof that they are of ''good moral
character, attached to the principles of
the Constitution of the United States, and
well disposed to the good order and hap
pincss of the same'
The first section Of the bill also contains
an enumeration of the rights to be enioyed
by these classes, so made citizens, tin
every State and Territory in the United
-Stetes." These rights are: 'sTo make and
enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and
giveeevidence, to inherit, purchase, lease,
sell, hold and convey real and personal
property" and to have "ful and equal
benefit OF all laws and proceedings for the
security of person and property as is en-
joyed by white citizens So. too, they are
made subject to the same punishment,
pains and penalties, in common with white
citizens, and to none others. Thus per-
feet equality of the white and black 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 these can
any State ever exercise any power of dis
elimination between the different races.
In the exercise of State policy over mat
ters exclusively affecting the people of
each State, it has frequently been thought
races. By the statutes of some of the
States, Northern as we'll as Southern, it is
enacted, for instance, that no white person
shall lntermarry with negro or mulatto.
Chancellor 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