The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-04-05

dent johnson vetolng the civil Rights
bill -
To the Senate of the United States. 1
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, ano furnish the meaus
of their vindieation," contains provisions
which cannot approve, consistently with
my sense of duty to the whole people and
my obligations to the Constitution of the
United States I am, therefore, con-
strained to return it to the Senate, (the
House in which it originated,) with my
objections to its becoming a law.
| BY the first section of the bill, all per-
sons born in the United States, and not
subject to any foreign power, excluding
! Indians not taxed, are declared to be citi-
zens of the United States. This provision
com prehends the Chinese of the Pacific
States, indians subject to taxation, the
people called Gipsies, as we'll as the entire
race designated as blacks, people Of color,
negroes, mulattoes, and persons of Afri-
can blood. Every individual 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 Fed
eral citizenship it does not propose to
give these classes of persons any status as
citizens of States, 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 exclu-
sively with the several States, as the power
to confer the right of Federal citizenship
is with Congress. Tie 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 ciher hand, such
persons are not citizens, as may be assu-
med 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 the time, it is sound policy to make
our entire colorcd population, and all other
excepted classes, citizens of the United
States. -Four millions of them have Just
emerged from slavery into freedom. Can /
1t be reasonably supposed that they pos
sess 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 conviction? 1t may also be asked
whether 1t 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 con
ferred by the bill are, by Federal as well
as State laws, secured to all domiciled
aliens and foreigners even before the COM
pletion of the process of naturalization
aud 1t may safely be assumed that the
same enactments are sufficient to give like
protection and benefits to those Cor whom
this bill provides special legislation.
Besides, the policy Of the Government |
from its origin to the present time, seems
to have been that persons who are stran-
gers 20 and unfamiliar with our institu-
tions and cur laws should pass through
certain probation, at the eud Of which,
before Obtaining the coveted prize, they |
must give evidence of their fitness to re- |
ceiye and to exercise the rights of citi-
zens, as contem plated by the Constitution
Of the United States. The bill, in effect,
proposes discrimination against large
numbers Of intelligent, worthy, and patri-
,tic foreigners, aud in favor of the negro,
o whom, after long years OF bondage, the
venues to freedom and intelligence have
low been suddenly opened. He must OF
necessity, from his previous unfortunate
Of servitude, be less informed as
o the nature and character of our insti-
utions than he who, coming from abroad,
as to some extent at least familiarized
lmself with the principles of Govern
lent to which he voluntarily entrusts
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- :
ess." Yet 1t is now proposed, by single
egislative enactment, to confer the rights {
citizens upon all persons of African I
escent born within the extended limits :
the United States, while persons of for {
gn birth, who make our land their home, t
ust undergo probation of five years, {
I'd can only then become citizens upon c
roof that they are of 'good moral char
,ter, attached to the principles of the s
onstitution of the United States, and 5
ell disposed to the good order and hap 7
mess of the same" 7
The first section of the bill also con- e
lns an enumeration of the rights to be S
lJoyed by these classes, so made citizens, f
n every State and Territory in the Uni v
d States" These rights are: "To make u
I'd enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, 0
I'd give evidence, to inherit, purchase, n
ase, sell, hold and convey real and per- 9
nal property" and to have "full and p