640 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



committed against the provisions of this act within 

 any judicial district, it shall be lawful for him, in his 

 discretion, to direct the judge, marshal, and district 

 attorney of such district to attend at such place 

 within the district, and for such time as he may des- 

 ignate, for the purpose of the more speedy arrest 

 and trial of persons charged with a violation of this 

 act ; and it shall be the duty of every judge or other 

 officer, when any such requisition shall be received 

 by him, to attend at the place and for the time there- 

 in designated. 



SEC. "9. And be it further enacted, That it shall be 

 lawful for the President of the United States, or such 

 person as he may empower for that purpose, to em- 

 ploy such part of the land or naval forces of the 

 United States, or of the militia, as shall be necessary 

 to prevent the violation and enforce the due execu- 

 tion of this act. 



SEC. 10. And, be it further enacted, That upon all 

 questions of law arising in any cause under the pro- 

 visions of this act, a final appeal may be taken to 

 the Supreme Court of the United States. 



The message of the President was as'follows : 

 To the Senate of the United States : 



I 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 vindication," contains provisions 

 which I cannot approve, consistently with my sense 

 of duty to the whole people and my obligations to 

 the Constitution of the United States. I am there- 

 fore constrained to return it to the Senate, the House 

 in which it originated, with my objections to its be- 

 coming a law. 



Bv the first section of the bill, 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 

 comprehends the Chinese of the Pacific States, In- 

 dians subject to taxation, the people called Gypsies, 

 as well as the entire race designated as blacks, peo- 

 ple of color, negroes, mulattoes, and persons of Af- 

 rican blood. Every individual of those races, born 

 in the United States, is by the bill made a citizen of 

 the United States. It does not purport to declare 

 or confer any other right of citizenship than Federal 

 citizenship. It does not purport 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 exclusively w_ith the 

 several States as the power to confer the right of 

 Federal citizenship is with Congress. 



The jright of Federal citizenship thus to be con- 

 ferred on the several excepted races before men- 

 tioned 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 pas- 

 sage 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, whether, when eleven of the thirty- 

 six States are unrepresented in Congress, at this 

 time it is sound policy to make our entire 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 rea- 

 sonably supposed that they possess the requisite 

 qualifications to entitle them to all the privileges and 

 immunities of citizens of the United States? Have 

 the people of the several States expressed such a 

 conviction ? It may also be asked whether it is ne- 

 cessary that they should be declared citizens in order 

 that they may be secured in the enjoyment of civil 

 rights ? Those rights proposed to be conferred by 

 the bill are by Federal as well 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. Be- 

 sides, 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 insti- 

 tutions and our laws should pass through a certain 

 probation, at the end of which, before attaining the 

 coveted prize, they must give evidence of their fit- 

 ness to receive and to exercise the rights of citizens 

 as contemplated by the Constitution of the United 

 States. 



The bill, in effect, proposes a 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 to freedom and 

 intelligence have now been suddenly opened. He 

 must of necessity, from his previous unfortunate 

 condition of servitude, be less informed, as to the 

 nature and character of our institutions than he 

 who, coming from abroad, has, to some extent at 

 least, familiarized himself with the principles of a 

 Government to which he voluntarily intrusts "life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Yet it is 

 now proposed by a single legislative enactment 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 a pro- 

 bation of five years, and can only then become citi- 

 zens upon proof that they are of "good moral char- 

 acter, attached to the principles of the Constitution 

 of the United States, and well disposed to the good 

 order and happiness of the same." 



The first section of the bill also contains an enu- 

 meration of the rights to be enjoyed by these classes, 

 so made citizens, "in every State and Territory in 

 the United States." These rights are, "to make and 

 enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evi- 

 dence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and con- 

 vey 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 now enjoyed by 

 white citizens." So, too, they are made subject to 

 the same punishment, pains, and penalties in com- 

 mon with white citizens, and to none others. Thus 

 a perfect equality of the white and black 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. In no one of 

 these can any State ever exercise any power of dis- 

 crimination between the different races. 



In the exercise of State policy over matters exclu- 

 sively affecting the people of each State, it has fre- 

 quently been thought expedient to discriminate be- 

 tween the two races. By the statutes of some of the 

 States, Northern as well as Southern, it is enacted, 

 for instance, that no white person shall intermarry 

 with a negro or mulatto. Chancellor Kent says, 

 speaking of the blacks, that "marriages between 

 them and the whites are forbidden in some of the 

 States where slavery does not exist, and they are 

 prohibited in all the slaveholding States, and when 

 not absolutely contrary to law, they are revolting, 

 and regarded as an offence against public de- 

 corum." 



1 do not say this bill repeals State laws on the sub- 

 ject of marriage between the 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 there- 

 fore cannot, under this hill, enter into the marriage 

 contract with the whites. I cite this discrimination, 

 however, as an instance of the State policy as to dis- 

 crimination, 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 marriaj- o 



