Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-04-04
THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL
VETOED.
President JOhnsOn'S Veto Mes
sage.
WASHINGTON, March %.

their vindication," contains provisions which
l cannOt approve consistently with my sens,
of duty to the whole people and my obliga.
tons to the Constitution of the United
States. l am therefore constrained to return
it to the Senate, the house in which it origi'
mated, with my objections to its becoming 6
law.
By the first section of the bill all person;
born in the United States and not subject to
any foreign power, excluding Indians not
taxed, are declared to be citizens of the Uni.
ted States. This provision comprehends the
Chinese of the Pacific States, Indians subject
to taxation, the people called gypsies, as well
as the entire race designated as blacks, PEG,
pie of color, negroes, mulattoes and person;
of African blood. Every individual of these
races, born in the United States, is by thi;
bill made a citizen of the States. 1t does
not purport to declare or coEfer any other
right of citizenship than Federal citizen
ship. 1t does not propose to give these class,
es Of persons any status of 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 citizen
ship is Just as exclusively with the several
States as the power to confer the right of
Federal citizenship is with Congrss. The
right of Federal citizenship thus to be con-
ferred with the several excepted cases before
mentioned. is now, for the first time, pro
posed to be given by law. If, asis claimed by
many, all persons who are native born, al
ready are by vurtue of the Constitution citi-
zens of the United States, the passage of the
pending bill cannot be necessary to make
them such. If, on the other hand, such per-
sons are not citizens, as may be assumed
from the proposal legislation to make them
such, the grave question presents itself wheth-
er when eleven of the t~hIrty-six States are
unrepresented in Congress at this time, 1t is
sound policy to make our entire colored pop
ulaticn and all other excepted classes cit
liens 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 i'm
munities of citizenship of the United States p!
Have the people of the several States express
ed such a conviction? 1t may also be asked
whether it is necessary they be declared cit
liens insorder that they may be secured in
the enjoyment Of the civil rights proposed to
be conferred by this bill. These rights are
by Federal as by State laws secured to all
domiciled aliens and foreigners, even before
the completion of the process of naturaliza-
ton, and it may be safely assumed that the
same enactments are sufficient to give like
protection and benefits to those for whom
this bill provides special legislation. Be-
sides the policy of the Government from its
origin TO the present time, seems TO have
been that persons who are strangers to and
unfamiliar with our institutions and our
laws, should pass through a certain proba-
ton, at the end of which, before allowing
them the coveted prize, they must give ev-
idence of their fitness to receive and to ex-
ercise the rights of citizens as contemplated
by the Constitution of the United States.
The bill in effect proposes a discrimination
against large numbers of intelligent, worthy
and patriotic foreigners in favor ofthe negro,
to whom after long years of bondage, the av.
enues to freedom and intelligence have just
now suddenly opened. He must of necessi-
ty, from his previous unfortunate condition
of servitude, be less informed as to the ma.
ture of our institutions than he who, coming
from abroad, has to some extent at least ia,
miliarized himself with the principles of q
Government to which he voluntarily en-
trusts life, liberty and the pursuit of happi
ness. Yet it is now proposed by a single
legislative enactment to confer rights of cit.
lzens IDOL all persons of African descent
born within the extended limits of the United
States, while persons of foreign birth, who
make our land their home, must undergo 8
probation of five years, and only then be-
come citizens on proof that they are of good
moral character, attached the to the princi.
pies of the Constitution of the United States,
and well disposed to the good order and hap.
piness of the same.
The first section of the bill also contain:
an enumeration of the rights to br enjoyed
by these classes so made citizens in every
State and Territory in the United States
These rights are, to make and enfore con.
tracts, to sue, be parties and give evidence
to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and con.
vey real and personal property, and to have
full and equal benefit of all laws and pro.
ceedings for the security of persons and prop,
erty as enjoyed by white citizens. So, too
they are made subject to the same punish.
ment, pains and penalties common with
white citizens, and to none others. Thus s
perfect equality of white and colored races il
attempted to be fixed by Federal law in eve
~ State of the Union. Over a vast field o.
State jurisdiction covered by these m
ted rights, insno n ofthem can any State ex.
ercise any power of discrimination between
the races. In the exercise of State policy
over matters exclusively affecting the people
of each State, it has frequently been though
| expedient to discriminate between the tive
races by the statutes of some of the States
North as well as South. 1t is enacted, fol
instance that nc white person shall intermar
~ with a negro or nulatto. Chancellor
| Kent says, speaking of the blacks, that mar.
riages between them and the whites are for.
hidden in some of the States where slavery
does not exist, and they are prohibited in al
the slaveholding States by law, and where
not absolutely contrary to the law, they arr
revolving and regarded as an ofense agains
the public demeanOT. / do not say that this
bill repeats the State laws on the subject o
marriage between the two races for as the
whites are forbidden TO mtermarry with the
blacks, the blacks can only make such con
tracts as the whites themselves are allowed
to make, and therefore cannot under this bill
enter into the marriage contract with the
whites. l cite this discrimination, however
as an instance of State policy as to diserim
~ination, and to inquire whether, If Congress.
can abrogate all State laws of discrimination
between the two races in the matter of reaI
estate, Of suits, and of contracts generally,
Congress may not also repeal the State law:
as to the contract of marriage between the
races. Every subject embraced in the emu.
meratIon of rights contained in this bill ha;
been considered as exclusively belonging tC
the States, They all relate to the internal
policy and economy of the respective States
They are matters which in each State con.
Germ the domestic condition of its people, va,
rying in each according to its own peculiar
circumstances and the safety and well being
of its W citizens. L do not mean to say
that upon all these subjects there are not fed
eral restraints as, for instance, on the State
power Of legislation over contracts there is
| federal limitation that no State Shall pass {
law impairing the obligations of contracts
and as to crimes, that no State shall pass al
ex post facto law and as to money, that NJ
State shall make anything but gold and sill.
yer a legal tender. But where can we fine
a Federal prohibition against the power o
any State to discriminate, as do most of them
between aliens and citizens, between artif'
cial persons called corporations, and natural
ICED persons. in the right to hold real estate
If it be granted that Congress can repeal al
State laws discriminating between white apC
black on the subjects covered by this bill
why, it may be asked, may not Congress re
peal, in the same way, all State laws dlscrim
mating between the two races on the subjec
of suff-aGe and office. IF CONGRESS can de