The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1838-03-10


would be inhabitants, neither planters nor
taxable, who, though free as the winds,
might be unsafe repositories of popular
power; and the design was to admit no man
to the freedom of the province who had not
a stake in it. That the clause which re-
lates to freedom by service, was not fnten-
ded for manumitted slaves, is evident from
the fact that there were none; and il resar-
ded not slavery, but limited servitude expi-
red by eflux OF time. AT that time, GER
tainly, the case Of manumitted slave, or
of his ireeborn progeny, was not contem-
plated as one TO be provided for on the foun-
der's scheme of policy. have quoted the
passage, however, to show that the word
freeman was applied in peculiar sense to
the political compact of our ancestors, res
ting, like a corporation, on charter from
the crown; and exactly as it was applied to
bodies polite at home. In entire consonance
il was declared in the Act of Union, given
at Chester in the same year, that strangers
and foreigners holding land according to
the law OF a freeman" and promising obe-
dience TO the proprietary as well as allegi-
ance to the crown, "shall be held and repu-
ted freemen of the province and counties
aforesaid" d"--and it was further declared that
when foreigner shall make his request to
the governor of the province for the dfore-
said freedom, the same person shall be al
mitted on the conditions herein expressed,
paying twenty shillings sterling and no
more"-modes ofexpresslon peculiarly ap-
propriate to corporate fellowship. The
word in the same sense pervades the Char
ter Of Privileges, the Act Of Settlement, and
the Act OF Naturalization, in the preamble
to the last of which, it was said that some
Of the inhabitants were foreigners and not
freemen according to the acceptation of the
laws Of England" II held its place also
in the Legislative style of enactment down to
the adoption of the present Constitution; af-
ter which, the words 'by and with the ad-
vice and consent of the freemen,'' were left
out and the present style substituted. Thus
till the instant when the phrase on which
the question turns, was penned, the term
freeman had peculiar and specific sense,
being used like the term citizen which sup
planted it, TO denote one who had voice in
public affairs. The citizens were denom-
CfCll III tuC COuStllutiOIl vi
l776--and under the present Constitution,
the word, though dropped in the style, was
used in legislative acts convertiby with
electors, so late at the year 1898 when it
grew into disuse. In an act passed the
fourth of April in that year for the estab-
lishment of certain election districts, it was
for the first time, used indiscriminately with
that word; since when, it has been entirely
disussd. Now it will not be pretended
that the Legislature meant to have it inferred
that every one not freeman within the
perview should be deemed slave; and how
can conyergent intent be collected from
the same word in the Constitution, that ev-
cry one not slave is to be accounted an
elsctor! Except for tho word citizen which
stands in the context also as term of dual
ification, and allirmance Of these PROPOSE
tons would extend the right of suffrage to
aliens; and to admit of any exception to the
argument, its force being derived from the
supposed universally Of the term, would
destroy it. Once concede that there may
be freeman in one sense OF il, who is not
SO in another, and the whole ground is sur
rendered. In what sense then must the
Convention of 1890 be supposed to have
used the term! Questionless in that which
it had acquired by use in public acts and
legal proceedings, for the reason that du-
bious statute is to be expounded by Usage.
"'Fhe meaning Of things spoken and writ
ten, must be as hath been constantly receiv-
ed" Waugh 100. )-On this principle, it
is difficult TO discover how the word free
man, as used in previous public acts, could
have been meant to comprehend coloured
race. As we'll might it be supposed that
the declaration of universal and unalienable
freedom in both our Constitutions. was
meant to comprehend it. Nothing was ev-
er more comprehensively predicaled, and a
practical enforcement of it would have lib
Grated every slave in the State; yet mltiga-
ted slavery long continued to exist among
us in derogation of it. Rules ofnterpreta-
ton demand strictly verbal construction Of
but penal statute; and constitution is to
be construed still more literally than even
a remedial one, because a convention legis-
lating for masses, can do little more than
mark an outline of fundamental principles,
leaving the interior gyrations and details to
be filled up by ordinary legislation. "Con-
yentions intended TO regulate the conduct of
nations" said Chief Justice Tilghman in