Thursday, March 14, 2019

Fox & Friends Exclusive! President Andrew Johnson’s Veto of 1866 Civil Rights Law


FNF: We’re back after interviewing President Trump, who is quite frustrated with Congress after rebuking his national emergency declaration. You heard him first, explaining this morning’s tweet: “F*CK PELOSI! F*CK SCHUMER! FINISH THE WALL!” [ProfLERoy has made up this tweet.]
You have to like the alliteration there. Such a smart man.
We bring in our next guest, President Andrew Johnson. 
On March 27, 1866, President Johnson vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act, a law that contained a hodgepodge of extreme and far-left ideas such as equal rights for all, and birthright citizenship. President Johnson, welcome to Fox & Friends!

President Johnson, why did you veto this law?
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: By 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, Indians subject to taxation, the people called Gypsies, as well as the entire race designated as blacks, people, of color, negroes, mulattoes, and persons of African blood. Every individual of these races, born in the United States, is by the bill made a citizen of the United States.
F&F: Say no more. We get it.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: 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 with the several States as the power to confer the right of federal citizenship is with Congress.
F&F: We get that, too, Mr. President. The federal government really has no powers other than to make war and protect borders. It’s states that retain all rights and powers—they are closer to the people.
The liberal Congress that passed the law refused to seat any senators or representatives from the 11 states that formally rebelled. After the war ended, shouldn’t things have been “forgive and forget?”
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: 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, and all other excepted classes, citizens of the United States. Four millions of them have just emerged from slavery into freedom.
Can it be reasonably supposed that they possess the requisite qualifications to entitle them to all the privileges and immunities of citizenship of the United States? Have the people of the several States expressed such a conviction?
F&F: Here at Fox, we agree: People who rebelled should also have a vote on whether to free slaves. It just makes so much sense. 
We need to wrap things up to cover a story about a professor who runs mocking blog posts of Fox broadcasts. He insinuates some kind of weird connection between Fox and politicians like you. So we want to ask: What do you think of black people?
PRESIDENT JOHNSON: The bill in effect proposes a discrimination … in favor of the negro, to whom, after long years of bondage, the avenues to freedom and intelligence have just 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 entrusts life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Congress overrode President Johnson's veto, ensuring that all people have a right to due process and equal protection of the law. President Trump's declaration of a national emergency to fund the wall is a much less significant issue, but it tracks some of the racially biased arguments made by President Johnson. As of March 14, 2019, it appears that Congress will not have the votes to override President Trump's expected veto.



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