The Carolina Spartan. (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, April 12, 1866, Image 1
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BY F. M. TRIMMIER Devoted to Education, Agricultural, Manufacturing and Mechanical Arts. $2.00 IN ADVANCE
VOL XXIII. * SPARTANBURG, S. C., THURSDAY, A PRIL 12, 1866. NO 11
THE
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THE VETO MESSAGE.
The following is the message of President
Johnson vetoing the Civil Rights
Bill :
T j the Senate of the United State* :
I regret that the bill which has passed
both Houses of Cougiess, entitled "An Act
to protect all persons in the United States
in their civil rights, and furnish the means
of their vindication," contains provisions
which I cannot approve, consistently with
my sense ot duty to the whole people, and
my obligations to the Constitution of the
United States, I am, thcreloio, constrained
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 persons
born in the United States, and not
subject to nny foreign power, excluding
Jri'lians not taxed, arc declared to bo citizens
of the Uuited States. This provision
comprehends the Chinese of the Pacific
States, Indians subject to taxation, the people
called Gipsies, as well as the entire
race designated as blacks, people of color,
negroes, muluttoes and poisons of African
blood. Every individual of theso races,
born in tho United States, is by the bill
mn.ln ? AUIonn ikn 1,
IIUX4V U VIVIbVII W1 HIV. V Ul.tU UUHUO. li
docs not purport to declare or oonfer any
other right of citizenship than Federal oit
izenship; it docs 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 contcr the right of State cit
izenship is just 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 he conferred In the several excepted
ratios before mentioned, is now, tor the
first tinio, proposed to be given by law. If,
as is claimed by many, all persons who are
native burn, already are, by virtue of the
Constitution, oitizeus of the United States,
the passage of the pending bill cannot be
necessary to make them such. It, on the
other hand, such persons arc not citizens,
as may be assumed from the proposed leg
islation to make them such, the grave question
presents itself whether, where eleven
of the thirty-six States are unrepresented
in Congress at the time, it is sound policy
to make our entire colored population, aud
all other excepted classes, citizens of tho
United States. Four millions of them
have just emerged from sluvery into free
doui. Can it be reasonably supposed that
entitle them to all the privileges and iin
muni ties ot citizcuship ol the U nited States?
Have the people of the several States expressed
such a conviction ? It may also
be asked whether it i? necessary that they
should be declared citizens in order that
they may be secured in the enj >yment of
the civil rights proposed to b? conferred
by the bill'/ Those rights are, by Federal
as well as by State laws, secured to all do
miciled aliens and foreigners, even beforo
the completion of the process of naturalization;
and it may safely be assumed that
the same enactments nro sufficient to give
like prol- ction and bene tits to those lor
whom this bill provides special legislation.
Besides, the policy of the (iovcrniucnt
from its origin to the present time seetus
to have been that persons who are strangers
to and unfamiliar with onr institutions and
our laws, should pass through a certain
probation, at the end of which, before at
taiuing the coveted prize, they must give
evidence ot their fitness to receive and to
exercise the rights of citizens as contemplated
by the Constitution of tho United
States. The bill in cficct proposes a dis
crimination against large numbers of intelligent,
worthy and patriotic foreigners, and
in f'uvor of the negro, to whom, after long
years of bondage, the avenues to freedom
And intelligence have just now been sud
donly opened. He must ot necessity, from
his previous unfortunate condition of sor
vitudo, be less informed as to the nature
and character of our institutions than he
who, coming from abroad, has to some extent,
at least, fumiliarizcd himself with the
principles of a Government to which ho
voluntaiily entrusts life, liberty and tho
pursuit of happiucss. Yet it is now pro
posed by a single legislative eimatm?io
confer the rights of oitxena upon all persona
of African descent, born within the
extended limits of the United StatC9, while
persona of foroign birth, who make our land
4k
their home, must undergo a probation of
five years, and can only then become citizens
upon prooi that they are of good moral
character, attached to tho principles of the
Constitution of tho United States, and well
disposed to the good order and happiness
of the same. Tho first section of the bill
also contains an enumeration of the rights
to be enjoyed by those classes fo made citizens
in every Stale and Territory in the
United States. These rights arc, to make
and enforce contracts, to cue, be parties
and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, j
lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal
property, and to have lull and equal
benefit of all laws and proceedings for the
security of persons and property as is en
joyed by whito citizens So too they are
inade subject to the same punishments,
pains and penalties, common with whito
citizens, and to nono others. Thus a per
feet equality of the white and colored races
is attempted to be fixed by Federal law in
every State of the Union, over the vast
field of State jurisdiction coverod by thesu
enumerated rights. In no one of them
can any State exercise any power of discrimination
between different races. In
the exercise of State policy over matters
exclusively affecting the people of each
State, it has frequently been thought ex
pedient to discriminate between the two
races. By the statutes of some of the
States North, as well as South, it is enacted,
for instance, that no white person shall
intermarry with a negro or mulatto. Chancellor
Kent says, speaking of the blacks,
that marriage, between them and the whites
arcTorbiddcu in some of the States where
slavery does not exist, and they are prohibited
in all the slave-holding States by
!uw; and, when not absolutely contrary to
law, they are revolting, and regarded as
an offenee against public docorum. I do
not say that this bill repeals the State laws,
on tho subject of marriage between the
two races, tor 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 can not, under this bill, enter into the
marriage contract with the whites. I take
tfiis discrimination, however, as an instance
of the State |>oiicy as to discrimination,
and to inquire whether, if Congress can
abrogate all State laws of discrimination
between the two races, in tho mutter ui
real estate, of suits, qnd of contracts generally,
Congress may not aUo repeal the
State laws as to the contract of marriage
between the races? Hitherto, every subject
euibruccd in the enumeration of rights
contained in the bill lim been considered
as exclusively belonging to the States: tlicv
all relate to the internal policy and economy
of the respective States They are
mutters which, in each State, concern the
domestic condition of its people, varying
in each according to its own peculiar circumstances
and the safety and well-being
ol its own citizens. 1 do not mean to say
that upon all these subjects there are not
Federal restraints, as, for instance, in the
State power of legislation over contracts,
there is a Federal limitation that no State
shall puss a law impairing the obligations
of contracts; and, us to crimes, that no State
shall pass un ex pott t'nrto law, and, as to
money, that no State shall make anything
but gold and tilver u legal tender. Hut
where can we hud a Federal prohibition
against the pow*-r of any State to discriminate,
as do moat oi them, between aliens
and citizens, between artificial persons call
ed corporations and naturalized persons in
the right to hold real estate? If it be
granted that Congress can repeal all State
laws discriminating between whites and
blacks, in the subjects covered by this bill,
why, it may be asked, muy not Congress
repeal in the same wuy, all State laws dis
criminating between the two laces on the
subject of suffrage an-i office ? If Congress
can declare by law who shall hold lands,
who shall testify, who shull have cupucity
to make u contract in a State, then Con
grcss can also by luw declare who, without j
regard to race or color, shall have tho right I
to act as a juror or as u judge, to hold any :
office, and finally to vote iu every State und 1
Territory of the United States. As respects
the Territories, they come within the pow- !
er of Congress, tor ns to them tho law- j
making power is tho Federal power; but j
as to tho States no similar provision exists,
vesting in Congress the power to make
rules und regulations for them.
The object of tho second section of the
bill is to atlord discriminating protection
to colored persons in the full enjoyment of)
all the rights secured to them bv the nrn
- # I" ~
ceding section. It declares that " any
person who, under oolorot'any law, statute,
ordinance, regulation or custom, shall sub
jeet or cause to be subjected any inhabitant
of any Stato or Territory to the deprivation
of any right sccurod or protected by
this act, or to different punishment, pains
or penalties on account of such person
having at any time been held in a condition
of slavery or involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment of crime, whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted,
or by reason of his raco or oolor, than is
prescribed for the punishmont of white
persons, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and on con viotion, shall be punished
by fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one
year, or both, in the discretion of the
Court." This section seems to bo designed
to apply to some existing or future law of a
State or Territory, which may conflict with
the provisions of tho bill now under consideration.
It provides for counteracting
such forbidden legislation, by imposing fine
and imprisonment unon the legislators who
may pass such conflicting laws, or upon
the officers or agents who shall put or attempt
to put them into execution. It
means an official offence, not a common
crime, committed against law upon the
* 'L- ?- - 1 ?
isviov>u ui jnujjunjf iuu uiacK race, oucb
an act may deprive the black man of his
property, but not of his right to hold property.
It means a deprivation of the right
itself, either by the State Judiciary or tho
State Legislature. It is, therefore, nssum
cd that, under this action, members of a
State Legislature, who should vote for laws
conflicting with the provisions of the bill,
that J udges of the State Courts who should
render judgments in antagonism with its
terms, and that marshals and sheriffs who
should as ministerial officers execute processes
sanctioned by State laws and issued
by State Judges in execution of their judg
tuents, could be brought before other tribunals
and there subjected to fine and im
prisonment, for the performance of the duties
which such State laws might impose.
The legislation thus proposed invades the
judicial power of the State. It says to
every State Court or Judge : if you decide
that this act is unconstitutional; it you refuse
under the prohibition of n State law,
to allow a negro to testify ; if you hold
that over such a subject matter the said
law is paramount, under oolor of a State
law refuse the exercise of the right to the
negro; your error of judgment, however
conscientious, shall subject you to tine and
imprisonment. ( do notapprehcud that the
conflicting legislation which the bill seeuis
to contemplate is so likely to occur, aR to
render it necessary at this time to adopt a
measure of such doubtful constitutionality.
In the next place, this provision yl the bill
seeuis to be unnecessary, as adequate judicial
remedies could be adopted to secure
the desired end without t-.ivading the immunities
of legislators, always important to
be preserved in the interest ot public liberty,
notwithstanding the independence o!
the judiciary ; always essential to the preservation
of individual rights, and without
impairing the efficiency of ministerial officers,
always necessary for the maintenance
of public peace aud order. The remedy
proj?osed by this section secins to he in this
respect uo only enomalons but unconstitutional,
for the Constitution guarantees
nothing with certainty if it does not ensure
to the several States the right of making
index ruling laws in regard to all matters
arising iu their jurisdiction, subject '
only to the restriction, in cases of conflict
with the constitution, and constitutional
laws of the Cnitcd States?the latter to be
as the supreme law of the land.
The third section gives the District!
1'ourts of tlie United States exclusive cog |
nitancc of all crimes and offences committed !
against the provisions of this act, and cou j
current jurisdiction witli the Circuit Courts
Ot the (nttcd States, of all civil and cruui
nal cases affecting persons who are denied,
or cannot cnlorcc in the courts, or judicial
tribunals ot the State or locality where
they may be, any of the rights secured to
them by the first section. The construction
which 1 have given to the second section
is strengthened by this third section, for it
uiukes clear what kind of denial, or depri
vation oi rightsseeured by the fir>t section, ;
was in contemplation. It is a denial or
deprivation of such rights in the courts or
judiciul tribunals of the State. It stands,
therefore, clear ol doubt, that the offence j
and the p? naltics provided in tho second
section arc intended for the State Judge,
who in the clear exercise of his tun tions
xs a judge, not acting ministerially hut ju
dicially, shall decide contrary to this Federal
law. In other words, when a State
Judge, acting upon a question involving a
Conflict between a State law and a Federal
law, and hound,according to Ins own judgment
unit Piiiinnnoll.ilit..
.v^ifuuinuiuij, w gnu mi iu par
tial decision between the two, cornea to the
conclusion that the State law is valid and
the Federal law is invalid, he must not
lollow the dictates of his own judgment, at
the peril of fine and imprisonment. The
legislative department of the Government
of the United States thus takes from the
Judicial department of the States the sa- j
crod and exclusive duty of judicial decis
ion, and converts the State Judge into a
mere ministerial officer, bound to decide
according to the will of Congress. It is
clear thut in States which den^ to persons,'
whose rights are secured by tho first section
of the bill, any one of those rights, all criminal
and civil cases affecting them will, by
tho provisions of tho third section, come
under the cxecutivo cognisance of the Federal
tribunals. It follows that if in any
State, which denies to a colored person any
one of all these rights, that person should
coinuiit a crime against the laws ot a State
?murder, arson, rape, or any other critue
?all protection and punishn cnt, through
the courts of the State, are taken away,
and he can only bo tried and punished in
the Federal Courts. How is the criminal
to be tried, it the offence is provided for
and punished by Federal law f That law,
and no* the State law, is to govern. It
was only when the offonce docs not happen
to be wi.hin the province of Federal law
that the Fe leral Courts arc to try and
punish him under any otber law. Then
resort is to be hud to common law, as modified
and changed by State legislation, so
far as the same is not inconsistent with the
Constitution and laws of the United States.
So that over this vast domain of criminal
jurisprudence, provided by each State for
the protection of its citizens, and for the
punishment of all persons who violated its
i
.awti. reuerai law. wherever it
can be made to apply, distances State law.
The question here naturally arises, from
what source Congress derives the power to
transfer to Federal tribunals certain classes
of cases euibiuced in this section. The
Constitution expressly declares that the
judicial power of the United Slates " shall
extend to all cases in law an? equity, arising
under the Constitution, the laws of the
United States, and treaties made, or which
shall be made, under their authority; to
all cases affecting embassadors or other
publie ministers and consols; to all cases
of admiralty nnd maritime jurisdiction ; to
controversies to which the United States
shall be a party ; to controversies between
two or more >!ate* ; between a State and
citizen of another State ; between citizens
of different States, and between a State, or
the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens
or subjects." Here the judicial power
of the United States is expressly set
forth and defined ; and tho act of September
24, 178U, established the judicial
courts of the United States, in conferring
upon tho Federal Courts jurisdiction over
cases originating in State tribunals, is care
ful to confine them to the classes enumerated
in the above recited clause of the Constitution.
This section of the bill undoubtedly
comprehends cases and auihorizes
the exercise ot powers that are not, by |
the Constitution, within tha jurisdiction ot |
tho Courts ol the United States To transfer
them to these courts would he un exercise
of authority well calculated to excite
distrust and alarm on the part of the State*,
for the bill applies alike to all of them, as
well us to those that have not been engaged
in reliellion. It may be assumed that
this authority is incident to the power
grunted to Congress by the Constitution us
recently amended to enforce by appropriate
legislation the article declaring that neither
slavery nor involuutury servitude, except
as a punishment for criuic whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted,shall
exist within tho United States, or any
place sU' jeet to their jurisdiction. It can
not, however, be justly claimed that, with
a view to the enforcement ot this article ot
the Constitu'ion, there is at present any
necessity for the exercise of all the powers
which this hill confers. Slavery has been i
abolished, and at nr<??u??? ??? ?
, - _ V?VM? ill' WUCIU Clia'S
within the jurisdiction ot the United States.
Nor has there been, nor is it likely there
will be any attempts to revive it by the
people ot the States. If, however, any
such attempt shall be made, it will then
become the duty of the General Government
to exercise any and all incidental
powers mcessary and proper to maintain
inviolate this great law of freedom. The
fourth section of the bill provides that offi
cers and agents of the Frecdnien's llurcau
shall be empowered to make arrests, and
also that other officers may be specially
commissioned for that purpose by the I'ro
sident ot the United States. It also authorises
the Circuit Courts ot the United
States and the Superior Courts of the Territories,
to appoint, without limitation,
Commissioners who are to be charged with
the performance of quasi judicial duties.
The fifth section emjKiwers the Commissioners
so to be selected by the Court, to
appoint, in writing, one or more suitable
persons from time to time to execute warrants
and other processes desirable by the
bill. These numerous official agents arc
made to constitute a sort of police in addition
to the military, and are authorized to
summon a potsr cvmitatiu, and even to
call to their aid such a portion of tho land
and naval forces i?f the 1 nited State.-, or of
! the militia " as may be necessary to the
performance of the duty with which they
are charged." This extraordinary power
is to be conferred upon agents irresponsible
; to the Government and to the people, to
! whoso number tho discretion ot the Com?
l tuissioncrs is tho only limit, and in whose
' hands such authority might ho made a tor1
riblc engine of wrong, oppression and
t i ">
iruuu. i ne general statutes regulating the
laml and naval forces t.f the United States,
the militia and the execution of tho law-,
aro believed to be adequate to any emergency
which can occur in tiiuo of peace
11 it should prove otherwise, Congress can
I at any time amend those laws in such man
| ncr as, while subucrving the public welfare,
not to jeopard the rights, interests and lib*
ertiea of the peopl**.
The seventh section provides that a fee
of 810 shall be paid to each Commissioner
in ever; case brought before him, and *
fee of five dollars to his deputy or depu*
tics for each person he or the; ma; arrest
and take before any such Commissioner,
with sueh other fees as mar he deemed
reasonable bj such Commissioner in general
for performing such other duties as
may be required in the premises. All
these fees are to bo paid out of the Treasury
of the United States whether there is
a conviction or not; but in ~
; .u vuau VTA WI1VIC"
tion they arc to be recoverable from the
defendant. It seems to me that under the Hgt/
influcnce of such temptations, bad men
might convert any law, however beneficent,
intoan instrument of persecution and frand
Hy the eighth section of the bill, tho
United States Courts, which sit in only
one placafor white citizens, must migrato ,
with the Marshal and District Attorney,
and nccessrrily with the Clerk (although
ho is not mentioned,) to any part of the
District, upon the order of the President,
and there bold a court for the purpose of
the more spe dy arrest and trial of persons
charged with a violation of this act J and .
there the judge and officers of the court
must remain, upon the order of the President,
for the time therein designated.
The ninth section authorizes the President.
or such person as he may empower
for that pu pose, to employ such part of tho
land or naval forces of the United States,
or of the militia, as shall be necessary to
prevent the violation and enforce the duo
execution of this act. This language seems
to imply a permanent military lorec that is
to be always at hand, and whose only business
is to be the enforcement of this measure
over tho vast region where it is intended
to operate.
1 do not propose to consider the policy
of this bill. To me the details of the bill*
are fraught with evil. Tho white raoc
and black race of the South have hitherto
lived together uudcr the relation of master
and s.ave?capital owning labor. Now that
relation is changed ; and as to own crtbip,
capital and labor urc divorced. Ttie stand
now picIi " *
, ?.. ww.ci ui nseu. in mia new
relation one being necessary to tho other,
there will be a new udjustineut, which both
arc deeply uiteiestcd in making harmonious.
Each has equal power in setting the
terms; and, it icit to the laws that regulate
capital and labor, it is contiJcntly believed
that they will satistuctbrily workout
the problem. Capital, it is tr io, has moro
intelligence ; but labor is uever so ignorant
as not to understand its own interests,
not to know its own value, and not to seo
that capital must pay that value. This
bill frustrates this adjustment. It intervenes
between capital and labor, and attempts
to settle questions ot political economy
through the agency ot' numerous officials,
whose interest it will be to foment
discord between the two races; lor as tho
breach widens, their employment will coutinue;
and when it is closed, their occupation
will terminato. In ull our history,
in all our experience us a people living
under Federal and State law, no such system
as that contemplated by (be details of this
bill ha.- ever before been proposed or nd >ptcd.
They establish lor the security ot the colored
race salt-guards winch go infinitely beyond any
thai the general government has ever provided
for the white race. In tact, the distinction of
race and color is by the bill made to operate
in favor ot the colored an l against tho white
race. They interfere with the tuuu'cipallegislation
of the States ; with relations existing
exclusively bei ween a Si ate and its citizens, or
between inhabitants of the same State ; an absorption
and assumption ot power by the gen
cral government which, if acquiesced in. must
-ap and desirory our lederutive system oflimiied
powers, and break down the barriers which
preserve the rights of the Stales. It is an <
other step, or rather stride, to centralization
and the coucciitiaiiou of a.', legislative powers
in the national government. The tendency of
the bill must be to resuscitate tho spirit ot rehellion,
and to arrest the progress of those influences
which are more closely drawing arouud
tne Stales the bonds of union and peace.
My lamented predecessor, in his proclamation
of the 1st ot January, 18t?3, ordered and
declared that all persons held as slaves within
certain Stales and parts of Stales therein designated,
were, and thenceforward should be,
free; and furl tier, that the Executive Government
of the United State* i,i. >-?
_ , ...v military
and naval authorities thereof, would recognize
and maintain tlio freedom of such persons.
This guaranty 1ms hcen rendered especially
obligatory an i sacred by the amendment
of the Constitution abolishing slavery
throughout the United Stales. I, therefore,
fully rec .guise the obligation to protect and
defend that class of our people whenever and
wherever it shall become necessary, and to the
full extent, com pat i le with the t oostitution of
the United Slates. Entertaining these sentiments,
it only remains for me to any that I will
cheerfully co-operate with Congro-s in any
measure that may be necessary for the preservation
of the civil rights of the freedtnen, as
well as those of all other classes of persons
throughout the United States, by judicial process
under equal and impartial laws, or conformably
with the provisions of iho Federal
Coosliiuiion.
I now return the bill to Iho Senate, and regret
that in considering the bills and joint resolutions,
forty-two in number, which have
been thus far submitted for my approval, 1 am
compelled to withhold my assent from a second
measure that has received the sanctiou of both
Houses of Congress. AXPHRW JOHNSON.