Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 7

8. Legislation for the Colored Man, in Congress, 1866: Compiled from the Congressional Globe ([Washington, DC?]: n.p., [1867?]). (16 p.)

Excerpts from debates in Congress regarding Reconstruction, especially those in regard to the civil rights of African Americans. The last six pages of the pamphlet contain President Andrew Johnson’s message that accompanied his veto of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866. Johnson’s message contains twenty-two objections to the bill, the first of which is his contention that the federal guarantee of civil rights for African Americans would result in “mongrel citizenship” (i.e. the extension of citizenship to “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, mullatoes and persons of African blood”). Johnson also asserts in his message that “Negroes [are] not fit for citizenship,” that the bill would jeopardize states laws against miscegenation, and that the a federal statute guaranteeing civil rights would interfere with the right of the individual states to regulate their own affairs.