The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1866-04-11
Veto of tn Civil Rights Bill.

| Veto of tn Civil Rights Bill.
To the Sende Of the United States
regret aat the bill which has passed
both house of congress, entitled, An act
to protect a persons in the United States
in their civl rights, and furnish the means
of their vidication, contains provisions
which camot approve consistently with
my sense oduty to the whole people and
my obligatons to the constitution of the
United Staes. am, therefore, constrained
to return j to the senate the house in
which it originated, with my objections to
its becoming law.
BY the fist section of the bill all per-
sons born n the United States and not
subject to any foreign power, excluding
Indians nd taxed, are declared to be citi-
zens Of tn, United States. This provision
compreherds the Chinese Of the Pacific
states, and Indians subject to taxation; the
people called gipsies as we'll as the entire
race designated as blacks, people of color,
negroes, nulattos and persons of African
blood. Every individual of these races,
born in tie limited States, is, by the bill,
made citizen of the United States. 1t
does not purport to, and declare, or confer
any other right Of citizenship than federal
citizenship. 1t does not propose to give
these classes Of persons any status Of 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 exclu-
sively with the several states. as the power
to confer the right of federal citizenship is
with congress. The right Of federal citi-
zenship thus To be conferred in the several
states, except the states before mentioned,
is now for the first time proposed to be Civ
en- 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 impend-
ing bill cannot be necessary to make them
such. 1T, 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,
where all the the tllirty-six states are un-
represented in congress at this time, it is
sound policy to make one entire colored
population, and all other excepted classes,
citizens Of the United States. Four mil
lions of them have Just emerged from slave
ry into freedom. Can it be reasonable to
suppose them possessed of the requisite
qualifications to cntitle them to all the priv
iieges and immunities of citizenship Of the
United States? Have the people of the
several states expressed such conviction?
1t may be asked whether it is necessary
that they should be declared citizens in or
der that they may be secured in the enjoy
ment of the civil rights proposed to be
conferred by the bill. These rights are,
by federal as well as state laws, secured to
all domiciled aliens and foreigners, even
before the completion of the process of nat
uralization; and it may be assumed that
the same enactments are sufficient to give
the same protection and benefits to those
for whom the bill provides special legisla-
ton. Besides, the policy of the govern
mcnt, from its origin to the present time,
seems to have been that persons who are
strangers to aud unfamiliar with our in
stitutions and our laws, should pass thro'
certain prohibition, at the end of which,
before allowing them the coveted prize,
they must give evidence of their fitness
to receive and to exercise the rights Of citi-
zens, as contemplated by the constitution.
The bill, ia .no.-, r-ocoses a dscrimina-
tion against large numbers OF intelligent.
worthy and patriotic foreigners, and in IA
yor OF the negro, to whom, after long
years OF bondage, the avenues to freedom
and intelligence have just now suddenly
opened. lie must, of necessity, from h s
previous unfortunate condition of seryi-
tude, be less informed as to the natural
character of our institutions than he, who
coming from abroad, has, to some extent.
Al Il
c!plcs of government to which he volun-
tarily entrusts life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. Yet it is now proposed. by
a single Legislative enactment, to confer
the rights of citizens upon all persons of
African descent born within the limits of
the United States; while persons of foreign
birth, who make our land their home. must
undergo 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 well disposed to the
good order and happiness of the same! The
first section of the bill also constitutes an
enumeration OF the rights to be enjoyed by
those classes so made citizens in every state
and territory of the United States. These
rights are, to make and enforce contracts,
to sue the parties and give evidence, to in
herit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and con-
vey real and personal property, and to
have full and equal benefits of all laws
and proceedings for the security of per-
sons and property, as is enjoyed by white
persons. So, too, they arc made subject
to the same punishment, pains and penal
ties common with white citizens, and to
none others. Thus perfect equality of
the white and colored races is attempted to
be fixed by federal law in every state of
the union, over the vast field Of state ju-
risdiction covered by these enumerated
rights. In no one Of them can any state
exercise any power of discrimination be-
tween different races. In the course OF
state policy over matters exclusively affect
ing the people Of each state, it has fire.
quently been thought cxpedient to discrim-
mate between the two races. By the stat
utes Of some of the states, north as well
as south, it is enacted, for instance, shat
no white person shall intermarry with a
negro or mulatto' Chancellor Kent says,
speaking Of tho blacks. that marriages be-
tween them and the whites are formed III
some of the states where slavery does not
exist. They are prohibited in all the
slaveholding states by law, and when moi
contrary to law they are revolving, and re
garded as an otfensc against public deco
rum. l do not say that this bill rcpeal
state laws on the subject of marriages be
tween the two races, for as the whites ar,
forbidden to marry with the blacks, tn
blacks can only make such contracts a
the whites themselves are allowed to make
and therefore under this bill cannot cnte
into o marriage contract with the whites
l cite this discrimination, however, as al
instance of the state policy as to discrimi
nation, and to inquire whether, if congress
can abrogate all state laws Of discrimina
ton between the two races, in the mattc
of real estate, of suits and Of contract
generally, congress may not also repeal tn
state laws Us to the contract Of marriag
between the two races. Hitherto ever,
subject embraced in the enumeration 0
rights contained in the bill, has been con
sidered as exclusively belonging to tn