The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-04-05
VETO OF THE
CIVIL RIG H rs BILL.
TO the Senate of the United States:

/ regret that the bill which has passed
both Houses of Congress, entitled can
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 origi-
mated, within objections to its becoming
a 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 pro-
vision comprehends the Chinese of the
Pacific States, Indians subject to taxa
ton, the people called gypsies, as well
as the entire race designated as blacks,
people of color, negroes, mulattoes, and
persons of African blood. Every indi-
vidual 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 confer any other right of
citizenship than Federal citizenship.
1t does not purport to give these classes
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 power 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
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
presents itself, whether, when eleven of
the thirty six States are unrepresented
in Congress, at this time it is sound
policy to make our entire colored popu-
lation and all other excepted classes
citizens of the United States? -Four
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 citi-
zens of the United States? Have the
people of the several States expressed
such a 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
civil rights? Those rights proposed to
be conferred by the bill, re, by Federal
as well as State laws, secured to all domi-
ciled aliens and foreigners even before
the completion of the process of natu-
ralization; 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
legislation. Besides, the policy of the
Government. from its origin to the pres
ent time, seems to have been that per-
sons who are strangers to- and unfamiliar
with our institutions and laws should
pass through a certain probation, at the
end of which, before attaining the COW
eted prize, they must give evidence of
their fitness to receive and to exercise
the rights of citizens, as contemplated
by the Constitution Of the United States.
The bill, in effect, proposes discrimi-
nation against large numbers of intelli-
gent, worthy and patriotic foreigners,
and in favor of ths negro, to whom,
q Ter long wears Ol DOil\ldSG, lIlc 1tFCiuSS
to freedom and intelligence have now
been suddenly opened. He must, Of
necessity, from his previous unfortunate
condition of servitude, be less informed
as to the nature and character of our in
situations than he who coming from
! abroad, has, to some extent. at least,
| familiarized himself with the principles
of a government to which he volun-
tarily entrusts 'life, liberty, and the
pursuit OF happiness" Vet it is now
| proposed, by a single legislative enact
ment, to confer the rights Of citizens
upon all persons Of African descent born
within the extended limits of the United
States, while persons of foreign birth:
who make our land their home, must
undergo IA probation Of five years, and
can OF ly 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 these classes, SO made citi-
zens, Sin every State and Territory in
the United States" These rights are
"To make and enforce contracts, to sue,