The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-04-17
Veto Message of the President
To the Senate ofthe Uutted States:

10 We SeHnte " He CuHet OtutsS
regret that the bill which has passed
/ both houses of Congress, entitled oar
Act to protect all persons in the United
Z States in their civil Rights, aud furnish
the means of their vindicatioE,' contains
provisions which I cannot approve. CON
sistently with my sense of duty to the
whole people of the United States. an
thetefore, constrained to return it to the
Senate (the body where it originated, J
with my objections to its becoming law
By the first section of the bill, all per,
sons born in the United States, and moi
subject to any foreign power, excluding
Indians not taxed, are declared to be
citizens of the United States. This pro-
vision comprchends the Chinese of the
pacific states, Indians subject to taxation,
the people called Gypsies, as we'll as the
entire race designated at "b!ack 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 purport to declare or confer
any other right of citizenship than fedaral
citizenship: it does not propose to give
these classes of persons any status as citi.
zens of states, except that which may re-
suit from their status as citizens of the
United States. The power to confer the
right of state citizenship is just as ex.
clusively with the several states as the
power to confer the right Of federal citi-
zenship is with Congress. The right of
federal citizenship, thus to be conferred
in the Severel excepted ratios before men
toned, 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 virtue of the Constitution
citizens of the United States, the passage
of the pending bill cannot be necessary to
make them such. If on the other hand,
such persons are not citizens as may be
assumed from the proposed legislation to
make them such, the grave question pre-
sents itself whether, where eleven of the
thirty-six states are unrepresented in con-
gress at this time, it is sound policy to
make our entire colored population and all
other excepted classes citizens of the
United States. -Four million of them have
Just emerged from slavery into freedom
Can it be reasonably supposed that they
possess the requisite qualifications to en-
title them to all the privileges and immu-
mites of citizenship of the United States?
Have the people of the several states ex-
pressed such conviction 1t may also
be asked whether it is necessary that they
should be declared citizens in order that
they may be secured in the enjoyment of
the civil rights proposed to be conferred
by the bill ? Those rights are, by federal
as well as by state laws, secured to all
domiciled aliens and foreigners, even be-
fore the completion of the process of nat
uralization; and it may safely be assumed
that the same enactments are sufficient to
give like protection and benefits to those
for whom this bill provides special legis-
lation. Besides, the policy of the gov.
ernment, from its origin to the present
time, seems to have been that persons who
are strangers to and unfamiliar with our
institutions and cur 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 citizens, as contemplated By the consti-
tuition of the United States. The bill in
effect, proposes a discrimination against
large numbers of intelligent, worthy and
patriotic foreigners, and in favor of the
negro, to whom, after long years of bond
age, the avenues to freedom and intelli-
gence have been suddenly opened. He
must of necessity, from his previous un-
Fortunate condition of seryitude, be less
informed as to the nature and character
Of our institutions than he who, coming
from abroad, has to some extent, at least
familiarized himself with the principles of
government to whlsh he voluntarily en-
trusts life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. Yet it is now proposed by a
single legislative enactment to confer the
right of citizens upon all persons of afri-
can descent, born within the extended
limits of the United States, while persons
of foreign birth, who make our land their
home 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 principles of the
Constitution of the United States, and we'll
disposed to the good order and happiness
Of the same.
The first section of the bill also con.
tains an enumeration of the rights to be
enjoyed by those classes 50 made citizens
in every state and territory in the United
States. These rights are to make and en-
force contractS,t to sue, be parties and give
evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell,
hold, ,and convey real and personal poperty
and to have such full and equal benefit of