The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-04-04
President JOhnson's Veto Of the
Civil Rights Bill.

To the Senate of the United States:
I regret that the bill which has passed
both Houses of Congress, entitled " An
act to protect all persons in the United
States in their civil rights, and furnish
the means for their vindication," con-
tains provisions which cannot approve,
consistently 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 ORR
ginated, with my objections to its be-
coming law.
By the first section of the bill, all
persons born in the United States, and
not subject to any foreign power, exclu-
ding Indians not taxed, are declared to
be citizens of the United 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, people Of color, negroes, mulat-
toes, and persons of African blood
Every individual of these races, born in
the United States, is by the bill made
a citizen of the United States. 1t does
not purport to declare or to confer any
other right of citizenship than Federal
citizenship. 1t does not purport to give
these classes of persons any status as
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 pover to confer the right
of Federal citizenship is with Congress.
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 native-born already are, by vir-
tue of the Constitution, citizens Of the
United States, the passage of the pend
ing bill cannot be necessary to make
them such. If, on the other hand, such
persons are not citizens, as may be as
sumed from the proposed Legislation to
make them such, the grave question
presents itself, whether, when eleven of
the thlrty-slx States are unrepresented
IN Congress, at this time it is sound pol
icy to make our entire colored popula-
ton and all other excepted classes citi-
zens of the United States Four mil
lions OF them have just emerged from
slavery into freedom Can it be reason
ably supposed that they possess the re-
quisite qualifications to entitle them to
all the privileges and immunities of cit
izens of the United States Have the
people of the several States expressed
such conviction I? Itmay 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 well as State laws, secured to all
domiciled aliens and foreigners even be-
fore the completion Of the process of
naturalization; and it may safely be as
sumed that the same enactments are
sufficient to give like protection and
benefits to those, for whom this bill
provides special legislation. Besides,
the policy Of the Government, from its
origin to the present time, seems to
have been that persons who are strang-
ers to, and unfamiliar with, our institu-
tions and laws should pass through
certain probation, at the end of which,
before attaining the coveted prize, they
must give evidence of their fitness to
receive and to exercise the rights of cit
liens, as contemplated by the Constitu,
tion of the United States.
The bill, in effect, proposes discrim-
nation against large numbers of intel
ligent, worthy, and patriotic foreigners,
and in favor of the negro, to whom, af.
ter long years of bondage, the avenues
to freedom and intelligence have now
been suddenly opened. He must, Of