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ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _March 27, 1866_.
_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 of their vindication," contains
provisions which I can not approve consistently with my sense of duty to
the whole people and my obligations to the Constitution of the United
States. I am therefore 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 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.


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