Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1866-03-28
VETO OF THE oc1v1L RIGHTS, BILL.

Yesterday the PRESIDENT OF the United States
sent to the Senate message, giving hisreasons
for returning the civil rights bill without his
approval. These reasons are set forth most
clearly and concIuSively, and must afford CON
vincing proof to every lair mind that the bill
a, passed had fatal defects rendering it impos-
sible for the President to give his assent toi'.
The President goes throuah the entire bill,
section by section, showing its evils, It's defects
and its noastrosties5 and concludes as follows:
[ do not propose to consider the policy of
this bill. To ome the details OF the bill seem
fraught with evil The white race and the
black race of the South have hitherto lived to-
gether under the relation of master and slave
capital owning labor. Now, suddenly, that re-
lation is changed, and, as to ownership, capital
and labor are divorced They stand now each
master Of itself. In this new relation, one be-
ing necessary to the other, there will be a new
adjustment, (which both are deeply Interested in
making harmonious. Each has equal power
in settling the terms, and if left to the laws
that regulate capital and labor it is confident
" believed that they will satisfactorily work
out the problem. Capital, it is tue, has more
intelligence but labor is never so Ignorant as
not to understand It's own interests, not to
know its own value, and not to see that capit;l
must pay that value. This bill illustrates this
adjustment It interyenes between capital and
and labor, and attempts to settle questions Of
political economy through the agency of hume
rous officials, whose interest it will be to foment
discord between the two races; for as the
breach wideDs their employment will continue,
and when it is closed their occupation will ter
inmate.
Iu all our history 10 all our experience as a
people living under Federal and State law, no
such system as that contemplated by the de-
tails of this bill has ever before been proposed
or adopted They establish, for the security OF
the colored race, safeguards which 60 infinite
!y beyond any that the General Government
has ever provided for the white race In fact,
the distinction Of race and color is, by the bill
made to operate in favor of the colored, and
against the white race They interfere with
the municipal legislation of the States, with
the relations existing exclusively between a
State and its citizens, or between inhabitants
of the same State-an absorption and assumr-
ton of the power by the General Government
which, if acquiesced ill., must sap and destroy
our tederatlve system OF limited powers, and
break down the barriers which preserve the
rights of the State. 1t is another step, OF
rather stride towards Capitalization, and the
concentration ola legislative powers in the
National Government. The tendency of the
bill must be 10 resuscitate the spirit of rebel
lion, and to arrest the progress OF those lntlu.
ences which are more closely drawing around
the States the bonds of union and peace.
My lamented predecessor, in his proclama-
tion of the lst of January, 1868, ordered and
declared that all persons held as slaves within
certain States and parts of States therein de-
sgnated, were AID thenceforward should be
free, and, further, that the Eexecutive Govern
ment of the United States, including the mill
tary and naval authorities thereof, would
recognize and maintain the freedom OF such
persons This guarantee has been rendered
especially obligatory and sacred by the amend
ment of the Constitution abolshing slavery
throughout the United States. | therefore
fully recognize the obligation to protect and
defend that class of our people, whenever and
wherever it shall become necessary, and to the
full extent compatible with the Constitution OF
the United States Entertaining these senti
ments, it only remains for me to say, that l
will cheerfully cooperate with Congress in any
measure that may be necessary for the protec-
ton of the civil rights of the freedmen, as We'll
as those of all other classes.of persons through
out the United States, by judicial process un'
der equal and impartial laws, in conformity
with the provisions of the Federal Constitution.
| now return the bill to the Senate and re-
s7et that in considering the bills and joint res
olutions-forty-,wo in number-whlch have
thus far been submitted for my approval, am
compelled to withhold my assent from a second
measure that has received the sanction OF both
Houses Of Congress.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
WASHINGTON, D. c., March 27, 1866.