CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. In American his tory, a bill passed by Congress in ISffil, as one of the Reconstruction measures of that body, for the purpose of securing an eqUality of civil rights to all citizens of the United States, and particu larly for the purpose of placing the freedmen in the South on an equal political footing with the whites. Its main provision was as follows: "All persons horn in the United States and not sub ject to any foreign power, excluding Indian.", not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any previous con dition of slavery or involuntary servitude, ex ec pt as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. shall have the same right, in every State and Territory of the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to in herit, purchase, lease, sell. hold. and convey real and personal property, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the se curity of person and property. as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like pun ishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or ens tom to the contrary notwithstanding." The other
sections of the bill merely provided for the carry ing out of this provision and fixed penalties for its infraction. The bill passed the Senate on 2 b.. a vote of 33 to 12, and the House on March 13 by a vote of 111 to 38; was vetoed by President Johnson on Nandi 27, and was passed over the veto by the Senate on April 6, and by the 'louse on .,1pril 9. It was the subject of an animated debate both in and out of Con gress, and the challenging. of its constitutionality led to the passage and adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. _\ nuttier bill, of .March 1, 1875, provided further for the rights of the blacks, prescribing that blacks should not be distin guished front whites by huokeepers, teachers or officers of schools. theatre-managers, and com mon carriers; that Federal courts should have exclusive jurisdiction over infraetions of the bill; and that negroes should not be excluded front juries. See RECONSTRLCTION.