Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1866-04-06
Presidents Message
VETOING THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.

act to protect all persons in the United
States in. their civil rights, and. furnish
the means of their vindication - con
tains provisions Which I cannot ap-
prove consistently with my sense of dt,-
ty to the whole people, and my obliga-
tions to the Constitution of the United
States. l am, therefore, constrained to
return it to the Senate, the House in
which it originated, with my objections
to its becoming law. BY the first sec
tion of the bilI 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 compre-
hends the Chinese of the. Pacific States,
I Indians subject to taxation, the people
called gipsies, as well as the entire race
designated as "blacks," people of col :
or, negroes,n mulatoes," and per
sons of African blood" Every indi-
vidual of these races, born in the United
States, is, by the bill, made q citizen of
the United States. t@is}ha L.
The power to confer the right of State
citizenship is just as exclusively with
the several States as the power to con-
fer the right of Federal citizenship is
with Congress. The right of Federal
citizenship thus to be conferred in the
several excepted cases 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 Constitu-
ton, 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 wheth-
or where eleven of the thirty-six States
are unrepresented in Congress at this
time, it is sound policy to make our en-
tire colored population, and all other
excepted classes, citizens of the United
States. Four millions of them have
just emerged from slavery into freedom.
Can it be reasonably supposed that they
possess the requisite qualifications to
entitle them to all the privileges and
immunities Of citizenship of the United
States? Have the people of the several
States expressed such a conviction? 1t
may, also, be asked whether it is neces-
sary that they should be declared citi-
zens in order that they may be secured
in the enjoyment of the civil rights pro-
posed TO be confirmed by the bill. These
rights are, by Federal as well as by
State laws, secured to all domiciled
aliens and foreigners, even before the
completion of the process of naturaliZa-
ton, 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 spec
ial legislation.
Besides, the policy of the Government
from its origin to the present time,
seems to have been that persons who
are strangers to and unfamiliar with
our institutions and our laws should
pass through certain probation, at the
end of which, before allowing the COW
eted prize, they must evipce their fit
ness to secure and to exercise the rights
of citizens, as contemplated by the Con-
stitution of the United States. The bill
in effect proposes discrimination
against large numbers of intelligent,
worthy and patriotic foreigners, and in
favor of the negro, to whom, after long
years of bondage, the avenues of free
dom and intelligence have just now
been suddenly. opened. He must, of
necessity-fro his previous ;unfortu-
nate condition Of servitude, be less in
formed as to the nature and character of
our institutions thar he, who, coming
from abroad, has, to some extent, at
least, familiarized himself with the
principle of a Government to which he
voluntarily intrusts life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. Yet 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 probation of five years,
and can only then become citizens upon
proof that they are of good moral char
acter, attached to to the principles of the
Constitution of the United States, and
well disposed to the good order and hap
piness of the same. $50 20 ~sFB.
The first section of the bill also con-
tains an enumeration of the rights to be
enjoyed by those classes so made citi-
zens in every State and Territory in the
United States. These rights are, to
make and enforce contracts, to sue, be
parties and give evidence, to inherit,
purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey
real and personal property, and to have
full and equal benefit of all laws and
proceedings for the security of person
and property as is enjoyed by white
citizens. So, too, they are made subject
to the same punishment, pains and PEN
alties, common with white citizens, and
to none other. Thus, perfect equality
of the white and colored races is at
tempted to be fixed by Federal law in
every State of the Union, over the vast
field Of State jurisdiction, covered by
these enumerated rights, and i'm no one
of them can any State exercise any pow
er of discrimination between different
races. In the exercise of State policy
over matters exclusively affecting the
people Of each State, it has frequently
been thought eXpedient to discriminate
between the two races.
By the statutes Of some of the States,
North as well as South, it is enacted,
for instance, that no white person shall
intermarry with a negro or mulatto.-i
Chancellor Kent says, speaking of the
blacks, that marriages between them
and the whites are forbidden i'm some of
the States where slavery does not exist,
and they are prohibited in all the slave
holding States by law, and when not
garded as, an offense against public de-
corum." do not say that this bill re-
peals State laws on the subject of mar
riage between tire two races !; for, as the !
whites are forbidden to intermarry with
the blacks, the blacks can only make
such contracts as the whites themselves
are allowed to make: and, therefore,
cannot under this bill enter into the
contract with the whites
l cite this discrimination, however, as
an instance of the State policy as to
and to inquire whether,
if Congress can abrogate all State laws
of discrimination between the two races
in the matter of real estate, Of suits, and
of contracts generally, Congress may
not also repeal the State laws as to the
contract of marriage between the races
Hitherto every subject embraced in
the enumeration of rights contained in
the bill has been considered as exclu-
sively belonging to the States. They
all relate to the internal policy and
economy of the respective States. They
are matters which in each State concern
the domestic condition of its people,
varying in each according to its own
peculiar circumstances, and the safety
and well being of its own citizens. /
do not mean to say that upon all these
subjects there are not Federal restraints;
as, for instance, in the State power of
over. contracts, there is a
Federal limitation that no State shall
pass law impairing the obligations of
4. s