The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-04-17

assumed when be extended civil rights
to the negro all through the sonth, as l
shall presently show, BY orders issued by
his authority, and yet refused to give
them the right of suffrage on the ground
that he had no constitutional power to do
it-that i: was right vested in the states
with which he could not interfere. But,
sir, the grant of civil rights does not, and
never did, in this country, carry with it
political rights, or more properly speaking,
political privileges. A man may be a
citizen of this country without the right
to vote, or without the right to hold
Office. X \ .
The right uf American citizenship means
something 1t does not mean in the
case of foreigner that when he is natur-
alised he is to be left to the mercy of
state Legislators. He has right, when
duly naturalized, to 90 into any state of
the United States, and submitting to its
laws, reside there, and the United States
would protect him in that right. 1t would
protect citizen of the United States not
only in one of the states of the Union but
it will protect him in foreign lands. x x
Equality of right is the basis of the com,
mouweath, ,as is said by Kent himself 10
speaking of these rights, he says that the
natural rights of individuals may be SAID
to be included in the right of personal
security, the right of personal liberty ,and
the right to acquire and enjoy property.
These rights have mostly been considered
and frequently declared by the people of
this country, to be natural, Inherent and
inalienable.
This government which would 60 to
war to protect its meanest citizen or in
habitant iu any foreign land, whose rights
were unjustly encroached upon, has GER
tainly some power to protect It's own citi-
zens in their own country.
THE SECOND SECTION OF THE CIVIL
RIGHTS BILL.
I pass from the consideration of this
first section Of the Dill to the second, which
is objected to by the President as rford-
ing discriminating protection to the col
ored persons.
Mr.. TrumbuIl read the section, and re-
marked that it was plainly remedial
measure, whose object and effect was only
to place all men upon the same level, as
to certain nights.
PUNISHMENT OF JUDGEs-AN InPoR-
TANT PRECEDENT.
But i, IS said that,under this provision
Judges of tie court may be punished and
ministerial officers may be punished, who
are engaged in the ex Scntlon OF any such
statute as this, and this is n2de an objection
to the law. | assert that the ministerial
officer and the judge, if he acts N'@!ous'y
and corruptIy in the execution of at lie
gal law, may aud ought to be punished,
and it is no novel provision to put in a
statute book. Very soon after theorgani
zation of this government,in the first year
of its existence, as long ago as 1890, the
Congress Of the United States provided
for Furnishing men, who, under the color
ofState laws, violated the laws ofthe United
States. [ will read from the 26th section
of an act passed in 1890: "In case any
person or persons shall sue for or prose-
cute any such writ or process, such per-
son or persons, and all attorneys and So
licitors prosecuting in such case, and all
officers executing any such writ or pro-
cess and being convicted thereof, shall be
deemed violators of the laws of nations
and disturbers of the public repose, and
shall be imprisoned not exceeding three
years or fined 81, 900, at the discretion Of
the court"
Mr.. Truubuli went on to show, by the
Presidents own acts and those of his au-
thorized and special agents, that they had
seen and recognized the dangers and in
justice against which the Civil Rights
bill is intended to provide. He showed
that this bill only sought to regulate by
civil power what the President had,in nu-
merous instances done and was doing by
military arm, and on his own response
bility, without authority or right, except
that of force. He showed that the de-.
tails of the bill were copied from the Flu
gitive Slave law, whose machinery was
always held to be constitutional that the
seventh and eighth sections objected to
by the President, were taken literally
from old statutes, which had never before
been objected to and, this done, he re-
viewed the course of the President, and
showed that on almost every occasion he
had acted in the spirit of the very bill
which he now vetoes.
THE PRESIDENTS RELATION TO THE BILL.
Mr.. Trumbull made the following ex.