THE PRESIDENTS COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS


 On December 5, 1946, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order #9808, establishing the
President's Committee on Civil Rights. Practically a year followed before the Committee submitted its
report, during which time the Committee held a series of public hearings at which interested groups made
statements and were questioned. There were private meetings and witnesses, staff studies and research,
and communications were received from hundreds of interested private citizens and organizations.1

 This noteworthy report was an official government document submitted by Committee members
from diverse walks of life upon the request of the chief executive. The document represented the interest
of the federal government and the participation of citizens in the broad and complex field of civil rights.
Furthermore, a new definition of civil liberties was recognized when the committee directed its interest
toward positive legislation by the federal government to guarantee certain liberties to the individual against
encroachment by other individuals or groups. Prior to this, federal civil liberties legislation most largely
pertained to the relations between the individual and government, neglecting the relations between
individuals. One exception was the passing of state civil rights acts in which individuals or groups are
forbidden to discriminate against other individuals or groups because of their race, color, religion,
membership in labor unions, or other arbitrary distinctions. Segregation, or discrimination, continued to
persist, however, despite these laws.2 Thus the President saw the need for a national report on the status
of civil rights and the possibility of national and positive action where local and state action had largely
failed. The Committee, nevertheless, submitted recommendations which included both federal and state
action.

 Other than the recommendation that Congress enact legislation granting citizenship to the
people of Guam and American Samoa,3 the President's Committee did not concern itself with the status of
civil rights or the need for positive action in the territories of the United States. The question whether or
not the inhabitants of the territories should enjoy the exercise of civil rights has in the past resolved itself
according to the intent the national government has shown as it acquired territories.

 CONTINENTAL TERRITORIES

 The time-honored doctrine that territories existed for the benefit of the mother country, and were
 politically subordinate and socially inferior to her, was definitely repudiated by the Ordinance adopted by
 the Continental Congress in 1878. On July 13 of that year, the Congress adopted the Ordinance of the
 Government of the Northwest Territory for the express purpose of preparing that territory for eventual
 admission into the Union "on an equal footing with the original States."4 Six "articles of compact between
 the original States and the people and States in the said Territory" guaranteed the following civil rights, or
 liberties, to the inhabitants of that territory:

 freedom of religion;
 writ of habeas corpus;
 proportional representation in the legislature;
 judicial proceedings according to common law;
 the right to bail, unless for capital offenses;
 freedom from cruel or unusual punishments;
 no denial of life, liberty, or property except by judgment of peers, or the law of the
 land, and unless full compensation is given;
 the right to make contracts and engagements;
 freedom from slavery or involuntary servitude, otherwise than in punishment of
 crimes.