196 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



admission of such loyal Senators and Representatives 

 of the now unrepresented States as have been, or as 

 may hereafter be, chosen in conformity with the Con- 

 stitution and laws of the United States. 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 



DEPABTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, June 20, 1866. 

 To the President : 



The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the 

 concurrent resolution of the two Houses of Congress 

 of the 18th instant, in the following words "that 

 the President of the United States be requested to 

 transmit forthwith to the Executives of the several 

 States of the United States, copies of the article of 

 amendment proposed by Congress to the State Legis- 

 latures, to amend the Constitution of the United 

 States, passed June 13, 1866, respecting citizenship, 

 the basis of representation, disqualification for office, 

 and validity of the public debt of the United States, 

 etc., to the end that the said States may proceed to 

 act upon the said article of amendment, and that he 

 request the Executive of each State that may ratify 

 said amendment to transmit to the Secretary of State 

 a certified copy of such ratification" has the honor 

 to submit the following report, namely, that on tho 

 16th instant, Hon. Amasa Cobb, of the Committee 

 of the House of Representatives on Enrolled Bills, 

 brought to this Department and deposited therein 

 an enrolled resolution of the two Houses of Congress, 

 which was thereupon received by the Secretary of 

 State and deposited among the rolls of the Depart- 

 ment, a copy of which is hereunto annexed. 



Thereupon the Secretary of State, on the 16th in- 

 stant, in conformity with the proceeding which was 

 adopted by him in 1865, in regard to the then pro- 

 posed and afterward adopted congressional amend- 

 ment of the Constitution of the United States, con- 

 cerning the prohibition of slavery, transmitted cer- 

 tified copies of the annexed resolution to the Gov- 

 ernors of the several States, together with a certificate 

 and circular letter. A copy of both of these com- 

 munications is hereunto annexed. 



Respectfully submitted, 



WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



In the Senate, on January 29th, Mr. Trumbull, 

 of Illinois, called up the bill to protect all per- 

 sons in the United States in their civil rights, 

 and furnish the means of their vindication. He 

 mpved to amend by inserting in the third line 

 of the first section the words " all persons of 

 African descent born in the United States are 

 hereby delared to be citizens of the United 

 States ; " so that the section would read: 



That all persons of African descent born in the 

 United States are hereby declared to be citizens of 

 the United States, and there shall be no discrimina- 

 tion in civil rights or immunities among the inhab- 

 itants of any State or Territory of the United States 

 on account of race, color, or previous condition of 

 slavery, etc. 



He said : " Mr. President, I regard the bill to 

 which the attention of the Senate is now called 

 as the most important measure that has been 

 under its consideration since the adoption of 

 the constitutional amendment abolishing sla- 

 very. That amendment declared that aU per- 

 sons in the United States should be free. This 

 measure is intended to give effect to that decla- 

 ration, and secure to all persons within the 

 United States practical freedom. There is very 

 little importance in the general declaration of 

 abstract truths and principles unless they can 

 be carried into effect, unless the persons who 

 are to be affected by them have some means of 



availing themselves of their benefits. Of what 

 avail was the immortal declaration 'that all 

 men are created equal ; that they are endowed 

 by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; 

 that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 

 suit of happiness,' and 'that to secure these 

 rights governments are instituted among men,' 

 to the millions of the African race in this coun- 

 try who were ground down and degraded and 

 subjected to a slavery more intolerable and 

 cruel than the world ever before knew ? Of 

 what avail was it to the citizen of Massachu- 

 setts, who, a few years ago, went to South Car- 

 olina to enforce a constitutional right in court, 

 that the Constitution of the United States de- 

 clared that the citizens of each State shall bo 

 entitled to all the privileges and immunities of 

 citizens in the several States? And of what 

 avail will it now be that the Constitution of the 

 United States has declared that slavery shall 

 not exist, if in the late slaveholding States laws 

 are to be enacted and enforced depriving per- 

 sons of African descent of privileges which are 

 essential to freemen ? 



" Since the abolition of slavery, the Legisla- 

 tures which have assembled in the insurrec- 

 tionary States have passed laws relating to the 

 freedmen, and in nearly all the States they have 

 discriminated against them. They deny them 

 certain rights, subject them to severe penalties, 

 and still impose upon them the very restrictions 

 which were imposed upon them in consequence 

 of the existence of slavery, and before it was 

 abolished. The purpose of the bill under con- 

 sideration is to destroy all these discriminations, 

 and to carry into effect the constitutional amend- 

 ment. The first section of the bill, as it is now 

 proposed to be amended, declares that all per- 

 sons of African descent shall be citizens of the 

 United States, and 



That there shall be no discrimination in civil rights 

 or immunities, among the inhabitants of any State 

 or Territory of the United States on account of race, 

 color, or previous condition of slavery ; but the in- 

 habitants of every race and color, without regard to 

 any previous condition of slavery or involuntary ser- 

 vitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof 

 the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have 

 the same right to make and enforce contracts, to sue, 

 be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, 

 lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal prop- 

 erty, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and pro- 

 ceedings for the security of person and property, and 

 shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penal- 

 ties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, 

 regulation, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. 



" This section is the basis of the whole bill. 

 The other provisions of the bill contain the ne- 

 cessary machinery to give effect to what are 

 declared to be the rights of all persons in the 

 first section, and the question will arise, has 

 Congress authority to pass such a bill? Has 

 Congress authority to give practical effect to the 

 great declaration that slavery shall not exist in 

 the United States ? If it has not, then nothing 

 has been accomplished by the adoption of the 

 constitutional amendment. In my judgment, 

 Congress has this authority." 



