The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-03-28
TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

Stocl,ou-yeto Message-lts Consideration
Postponed-Civil Rights Bi1l-Testimony OF
Generals Lee, Turner, Terry, John b. Bald
win, and others-The Conversation Between
Mr.. Baldwin and MIR. Lincoln In 1851, and
One Between Mr.. Bolts and Mr.. Baldwin.
WASHINGTON, March 27.--SEyATE.-The Sc
nate was occupied with the case of Mr.. Stock
ton, of New Jersey, and ruled him out by one
majority This action gives the Republican
Legislature of New Jersey an opportunity to
elect Republican In his place.
The pretext for ousting Mr.. Stockton was
that he was elected by plurality instead of
majority of the members of the former Legs
lature.
The President sent in veto Of the Civil
Rights bill. He says:
BY the first section Of the bill all persons
born in the United States and not subject to
any foreign power, excluding 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,
and the people called Gypsies, as well as the
entire race designated blacks, people of color,
negroes mulattoes, and persons Of African
blood Every individual of these races born
in the United States is, by the bill, made
citizen of the United States. 1t does not pur-
mort to declare or confer any other right of
citizenship than Federal citizenship, and 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 citi-
zenship is just as exclusively with the several
States rs the power to confer the right OF Fede'
raj 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.
The bill, in effect, proposes 4 discrimination
against large numbers of foreigners, and In
favor of the negro, to whom, after long years
of bondage, the avenues to freedom and intel
ligence have now been suddenly opened. He
must, of necessity, from his previous unfortu-
nate condition of servitude, be less informed
as to the nature and character of our institu-
tions than he who, coming from abroad, has,
to some extent, ut least, familiarzed himself
with the principles of government to which he
voluntarily entrusted life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. Yet it is now proposed,
by single legislative enactment, to confer the
rights of citizens upon all persons of African
United States, while persons of foreign birth
who make our land their homes 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 princi-
pies of the institutions of the United States,
and we'll disposed to the good order and hap
piness Of the same
In reviewing these sections of the bill he
says: If it be granted that Congress can re-
peal all State laws discriminating between
whites and blacks in the subjects covered by
this bill, why, it may be asked, may not Con-
gress repeal in the same way all State laws
discriminating between the two races on the
subjects of suffrage and office? If Congress
can declare by law who shall hold lands, who
shall ties tify, who shall have capacity to make
a contract, in n State, then Congress can by
law also declare who, without regard TO color
or race, shall have the right to sit as juror,
or as judge, or to hold any other office, and
finally to vote, in every State and Territory OF
the United States.
AS respects the Territories, they come within
the power of Congress, for as to them the law
making power is the Federal power but rs
TO the States, no similar provision exists vest.
ing in Congress the power to make rules and
regulations for them. The President says in
conclusion:
In all our history, in all our expert ence as
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 go infinitely
beyond any that the General Government has
s Ia n
fere with the municipal legislation of the
States, with the relations existing exclusively
between State and its citizens, and between
the inhabitants of the same State, in the alb
sorption and assumption of power by the
General Government, which, if acquiesced
in must sap and destroy our Federallte
system of limited powers, and break
down the barriers which preserve the
rights of the States. 1t is another step,
or rather stride, towards Capitalization
and the concentration of all legislative powers
in the National Government. The tendency
of the bill must be to resuscitate the
spirit of rebellion and TO arrest the progress
of those influences which are more closely
drawing around the States the bands OF Union
and Peace. My lamented predecessor IN his pro-
clamation Of the lst of January 1858, ordered
nd declared that all persons held as slaves
within certain States and parts OF States
therein designated were, and thenceforward
should be, free: and further, that the eXecu-
tive government of the United States, inclu-
ding the military and naval authorities
thereof, would recognize and maintain the
freedom of such persons. This guarantee has
been rendered especially obligatory and sacred
by the amendment of the Constitution abohsh-
ing slavery throughout the United States. l
therefore fully recognize the obligation to pro-
tect and defend that class of our people when
ever and wherever it shall become necessary,
and to the full extent, compatible with the
Constitution of the United States.
Entertaining these sentiments, 1t only re-
mains for me to say that 1 will cheerfully CO.
operate in any measure that may be necessary
for the protection of the civil rights OF the
freedmen, as well as those of all other classes
of persons throughout the United States, by
judicial process, under equal and impartial
laws, in conformity with the provisions OF the
Federal Constitution.
now return the bill to the Senate, and re-