The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-04-23
Negro Citizenship.


their bitter opposition to the Civil
Rights Bill, boldly advocate the doc
trsne that Congress has no power to
declare who are citizens of the United
States-that power being reserved to
the States-and that any person born
within a State, and made a citizen
thereof, is also citizen of the United
States. This argument was elaborated
at length by Hon. REvERDY JOHNSON,
in reply to Senator TRUMBULLs speech
in defense of the Civil Rights Bill as
against the Presidents veto. Mr..
JOHNSON supported his position by
decisions of the Supreme Court, and
laid especial stress upon the opinion
of Mr.. Justice Curtis, in the bred
Scott case, in which he declares " that
under the Constitution of the United
States, every free person born on the
soil of State, who is citizen of
that State by force of the Constitu-
ton or laws, is also a citizen of the
United States.
This Democratic view of citizen
ship under the Constitution goes fur
Their, perhaps, than its advocates are
willing to concede. Under the laws
of Wisconsin, New York, and Massa-
chusetts, negroes are citizens; and
hence, according to Democratic rea-
Esoning, are also citizens of the United.
States; and, consequently, there is no
power under the Constitution to pre-
vent negro citizen of those States
from becoming President or Vice
President of the United States, pro-
vided he should receive sufficient
votes. The only qualification for
President is that the aspirant shall be
natural-befn- citizen of the United
bStates,sbe thirty Eve years ofiage. and
have been fourteen years resident.
IA Massachusetts, citizen of color
might comply with all these condi-
tions.a Whenswe remember the many
instances in which negroes have been
straightforward by leading Democratic
politicians for minor city and county
offices, and voted for, Il does not re-
qnire very strong stretch of the i'm
, agination to picture them, one of these
days, nominating Sambo or Cufee as
! their candidate for President.
General CARL SCHURz, in the De-
troit Post, argues this matter at length,
deducing therefrom the following in
steresting conclusions. We commend
them to our Democratic subscribers,
who, in. the innocency of their souls,
have imagined that their party occu-
pies the only anti-negro ground, and
that all who oppose it are in favor Of
negro equality and all that. Says the
Post:
These conclusions may not be eminently
pleasant to the negro-hating Democracy -
nevertheless they can not be escaped If
the power to confer citizenship resides in
the State, then the negro voter of Massa-
chusetts is citizen; for the constitution
and laws of the State declare him a citi-
zen. If the power resides in the United
States, Congress, in the Civil Rights bill,
has declared him citizen. And there is
only one remaining loophole for the horri-
fled " Democrats" and that is to adopt the
doctrine that neither the State nor the ma
ton can confer citizenship, but that it is a
\ gift of Providence. This would involve
our perplexed Democratic friends in anoth-
er contradiction; that citizenship lisa right
of birth, after all and hence it is wrong
for human law to interfere in the matter at
all, and particularly to disfranchise any
man whom Providence has endowed with
q reason. > ~
Let it not be forgotten that the Demo-
cratic party has been in power in the Re-
publicfor years; that it might have altered
the Constitution and settled this question,
but never so much as stirred fingero or ut
tered q word to that end; and that if there
is any danger of our having a negro Presi-
ident, or seeing negroes in Congress, the
4 Democratic party is responsible for it.
G. L. VALLANDIGHAM, S. S. Cox,
4 DAN. VOORHEES,, and ALEXANDER
STEPHENS aDpears to he the recog-