New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-09-26
vEro OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL
Message OF the Governor.

Governor WafmOth TINS morning re-
turned the Civil Rights bill to the House
without his approval, accompanied by the
following message:
l ExKcUTIvR DEPARrAEHT, }
| State Of Louisiana
New Orleans, september ., ls6s
To the Honorable Speaker and Members Of the
House OF Representatives.:
return TO the House Of Representatives
an Act to Protect all Persons in Their Public
| and Civil Rights without my signature, for
| the following reasons, to wit:
The rights and privileges enumerated In
| the first section of this bill and sought to be
| enforced thereby are fully and explicitly re-
| cognized and established in the Constitution
of the State. Even a foreigner, not citi-
/ zen, has the same right to travel and be en-
tertained as q citizen, and there is nothing
j in our jurisprudence which makes distinc-
i tons on account of race or color, except IN
| so far as relates to slavery. The organic
| law of the land gives to ''all persons per-
feet equality of civil and political rights,
/ including the privilege of enforcing
ploying all the legal remedies which have
heretofore been found requisite to secure
| their rights to all persons; the means, how
| ever, proposed IN the fourth section of the
bill for enforcing these rights are, in my
| Judgment, not merely novel and unprece-
| dented, but impracticable and perniclous.
| II seeks to make that a crime which has
never to my knowledge been SO considered
| in those communities where the highest
regard is paid to the personal rights OF all
| men.
There is, aud always ought to be, a broad
| line of demarcation fixed between crime
and the breach of obligations growing out
| OF civil contracts. and we demorallZe the
public conscience and confuse its cOncep-
| tinOa of riuhf and Whnu 9pnk to
| obliterate so evident a distinction. Our
| statute book is filed already with criminal
| laws that are never enforced, and never Will
| be, until public opinion rises to their re-
spective levels. The history OF the world
is full of examples Of this sort, when acts
not in themselves criminal have been
/ vainly declared so, and in this way
a levity OF feeling in regard to real
crimes produced, we relapse into the legis-
| lation of q less enlightened period, when we
1 try to convert an act which is properly a
| question of civil damages into an Ofense
| against tine peace and dignity of the State.
And it ought to be carefully borne in mind
that we cannot hope by legislation to con-
| troll questions of personal association:
much less can we hope to force on those
| who differ from us our views OF what Is
humane, or courteous, or Christian-like.
Mutual forbearance and kindness, and the
noble belief in the brotherhood OF man,
must spring from higher source than the
fear of punishment. They can never be
forced to grow by pains and penalties.
Again, SO far as railroads and steamboats,
are concerned, 1t must be borne in mind
that the regulation OF commerce between
the st VeTal States was wisely conhded, un.
der the Constitution of the United States,
to the national Congress. The object of
this grant of power was clearly to
prevent the confusion which would
-,
such subjects by the different contiguous
States; aud the wisdom of the provision ap-
pears more clearly every day as the means
of transportation are increased and i'm
proved, By the second and third sections
of this act, no distinction is clearly made
between railroads and steamboats, whose
routes, are wholly within this State, and
those whose routes are beyond. Of course,
our criminal jurisdiction cannot 60 beyond
cur State lines, and in this respect the act
seems impolitic and liable to produce IN
necessary confusion and litigation. For ex.
perimental legislation of this kind, for
which the sanction of no successful prece
dent can be adduced, a more, unfavorable
| occasion than the present, could hardly be
imagined. In the midst ola most exciting
political campaign, at time when the
passions, ammosities, and resentments
consequent upon grea5 war, and attend
ant upon great and sudden changes
in affairs are reused to the highest
pitch of intensity, and when the preju-
dices regarding race are inaamed
to the utmost, it is here proposed to enforce
by penal remedies what is practically class
legislation, and to maintain and confirm
class distinctions. The effect, in my judy
meut, of such an act, would be to defeat
rather than to promote the ends apparently
had in view by the author of the bill. The
barriers of race, instead of being thereby re-
moved, would be increased in height and
breadth, in firmness aud strength. So long
as these barriers are maintained, SO long
will be deferred the era of peace, order and
prosperity in the State, to which mutual
harmony and good will are essential, and so
long will the rights of the lately enfran.
chised linger in the condition Of doubt and
and insecurity. The preiudices upon which
these barriers are founded have no founda-
ton in reason or nature, and will surely
give way to the softening influences of time,
unless they are constantly fretted into activ-
ity. In the mean time any person, colored
as we'll as white, is equally secured
by the Constitution in the enjoy
ment of political and civil rights, aud
in his remedy for their Infringement.
The courts are open to all alike; the same
rule obtains in National and State Courts
The Judges of the State Courts and their
| officers are amenable to and dependent upon
all citizens alike. Colored and white alike
constitute juries. Those of the lately en-
| franchised who are wise and rejecting will
not ask for more. They will rather depre-
cate kind of legislation which, instead of
| advancing their present condition, only rem
ders the enemies of their race more bitter
and determined in their hostility, and
furnishes them weapons whereby to assail
the rights which the colored men have al
ready acquired. In returning this bill with
out my signature, 1t is hardly necessary for
me to say that am prepared, so far as lies
in my province and power, to enforce the
new Constitution as It exists; such is my
desire, as well as my duty. But when flud
the act in question to be, in my best judg-
ment, unnecessary and unwlse, aud, for the
reasons have stated, calculated to demor-
alize the public conscience, and intensity
distinctions which will surely yield to the
power Of time, and the growth of more
catholic views of our personal relations, it
becomes no less clearly my duty to decline
10 sign it. H. G. WARM0TH,
..EN 4.