Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-04-05
THE VETO.

To the Senate of the United States
1 regret that the bill which has passed
both Houses of Congress, entitled "An act
to protect all persons in the United States
in their civil rights, and furnish the means
for their vlndication," contains provisions
which 1 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 originated, with my objections to
its becoming law.
By the first section of the bill, all per-
sons born in the United States, and not sub
ject to any foreign power, excluding In
dians not taxed, are declared to be citizens
/ of the United States. This provision COM
prehends the Chinese of the Pacific States,
Indians subject to taxation, the people called
Gypsies, as we'll as the entire race designa.
ted as blacks, people of color, negroes, ma
lattoes, and persons of African 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 to confer any other
right of citizenship than Federal citizenship.
1t does not purport to give these classes of
persons any status as citizens of States, ex-
cept that which may result from their status
as citizens of the United States. The power
to confer the right of State citizenship is
juss 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 claim
ed by many, all persons who are native born
already are, by the nature of the Conss'tu-
ton, citizens of the United States, the pas
sage of the pending bill cannot be neces-
sary 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 pre-
sents itself, whether, when eleven of the
thirty.six States are unrepresented in Con-
gress, at this time it is sound policy to
make our entire colored population and all
other excepted classes citizensof the United
States? Four millions of them have Just
been emerged from slavery into freedon.-
Can it be reasonably supposed that they
possess the requisite qualification to entltle
them to all the privileges and immunities
of citizens of the United States Have
the people of the several States expressed
such 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 contc rred by
the bill are, by Federal. as we'll as State
laws, secured to all domiciled aliens and
foreigners even before the completion of
the process of naturalization; 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
present time, seems to have been that per-
sons who are strangers to, and unfamiliar
with, our institutions and laws should pass
through certain probation, at the end of
which, before attaining the coveted prize,
they must give evidence of their fitness to
receive aud to exercise the rights of citi-
zons, as contemplated by the Constitution
of the United States.
The bill, 10 effect, proposes discrimina.
tion against large numbers of intelligent,
worthy, and patriotic foreigners, and in ia
vor of the negro, to whom, after long years
of bondage, the avenues to freedom and
intelligence have now been suddenly open.
ed. He must, of necessity, from his pre-
vious unfortunate condition of servitude, be
less informed as to the nature and charac.
ter of our institutions than he who, coming