Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1846-02-26


inhabitant, a1tifcer, other resident in the SAID
province thatpays scot and lot to the government
shall bedeemed and accounted FREEMAN Of the SAID
proUince and every such person shall be capable OF
electng or being elected representatives OF the peo-
pie In provincial council general assembly OF the
said province" Now by this minute and eiabo-|
brate detail! Had it been intended that all butt
servants and slaves should be freemen to every in-
tent it had been easier and more natural to say SOL
But it was not intended. 1t was toreseen that
there would be inhabitants, neither planters nor
taxable, who, though free as the Winds might be-
unsafe repositories of popular power; and the de-
sign was to admit no man to the freedom of the
province who had not a stake in it. That the
clause which relates to freedom by service, was
not intended for manumitted slaves is evident from
the fact that there none and it regarded not
slavery, but limited servtude expired by effiux OF
time. At that time certainly, the case OF a manu-
mtted slave, or of his freehorn progeny, was not
contemplated as one to be provided for in the foun-
ders scheme of policy. have quoted the passage,
however, to show that the word freeman ap-I
piled In peculiar to the political compact OF
our ancestors, resting, like corporation, on char
ter from the crown; and exactly as 1t was applied
IL bodies polite at home In entire consonance, it
declared in the act of union, given at Chester
in the year, that strangers and foreigners
and promising obedience to the proprietary as well
as allegiance to the crown, 'shall be held and re-
puted freemen of the province and counties atore-
said; and it was further declared that when To-
reigner 'shall make his request to the governor OF
the province for the aforesaid Freedom the same per-
son shall be admitted on the conditions herein ex-
pressed paying twenty shillings sterling and no
more;' modes Of expression peculiarly appropriate
to corporate fellowship. The word in the same
pervades the charter of privileges the act of
settlement and the act of naturalization, in the pre-
amble, to the last of which, it was said that some
of the inhabitants foreigners and not freemen
according to the acceptation of the laws of Eng
land.''
1t held its place also in the legislative style of
enactment down to the adoption of the present con-
sttution; after which, the words "by and with the
advice and consent of the freemen," were left ont
and the present style substituted. Thus till the
instant when the phrase on which the question
turns, was penned the term freeman had pecu-
liar and specific sense, being used like the term
citizen, which suppIanted it, to denote one who
had voice in public affairs. The citizens were
denominated freemen even in the constitution of
l776 and under the present constitution, the word
though dropped in the style, was used in the egis
lative acts convertibly with electors, late the
year 1898, when it grew into disuse
for the establishment of certain election districts it
was, for the first time, used indiscrminately with
that word since when, it has been entirely dis
used. Now it will not be pretended that the legis
lature meant to have it inferred that every not
freeman within the purview should be deemed a
slave; and how can convergent intent be collect
ed from the same word in the constitution, that
every one not slave is to be accounted electOr!
Except for the word citizen, which stands in the
context also a term of qualification, an affirm
ance of these propositions 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 1t.
Once concede that there may be a freeman IN one
sense Off, who is not so in another, and the whole
ground is surrendered. In what sense, then, must
the convention of 1895 be supposed to have used
the term! Questionless in that which it had ac-
CURED by use in public acts and legal proceedings,
for the reason that dubious statute is to be eX-
pounded by usage. "The meaning of things spok-
and written, must be as hath been constantly
received" -Vaugh. l69. On this principle, it is
difficult to discover how the word freeman, as used
Ill previous public acts, could have been meant to
comprehend colo!ed race. AS well might it be
supposed that the declaration of universal and I'M
alienabe freedom in both our constitutions was
meant to comprehend it. Nothing was ever more
comprehensively predicated, and practical enforce
ment of it would have liberated every slave in the
State; yet mitigated slavery long continued to ex
ist among in derogation of it. Rules of inter
probation demand strictly verbal construction Of
nothing but penal statute; and a constitution is to
be construed still more literally than even reme-
dial one, because convention egislating for
es, can do little more than mark an outline of fun
damental princi piles, leaving the interior gyratons
and details to be filed up by ordinary legislation
fConventions intended to regulate the conduct OF
natons,' said Chief Justice 1ilghman, in the Far.
mers' Bank D. Smith Serg s; RaavLe, SO, care not
to be construed like articles of agreement at the
common law. 1t is of little importance to the pub
lie whether a. tract of land belongs to A or B. In
deciding these titles strict rules of construction may
be adhered to, though sometimes at the expense OF
Justice But where multitudes are to be affected by
the construction of all amendment, great regard is
to be paid to the spirit and intention" What bet
ter key to these than the tone of antecedent legs
aton discoverabe in the application of the disputed
terms9
But in addition to Interpretation from usage, this
antecedent legislation furnishes oLher proofs that no
colored race was party to our social compact. AS
was justly remarked by President Fox, in the mat
ter of the late contested election ancestors set
tied the province as community of white men;
and the blacks were introduced into it race OF
slaves; whence unconquerabe prejudice Oh caste,
which has come down to our day, insomuch, tl1at
suspicion of faint still has the unjust effect of TX
ing the subject of it below the common level. Con-
ssenty with this prejudice is it to be credited that
parity of rank would be allowed to such racer
Let the question be answered by the statute of 1926
which denominated it an idle and slothful peope;I
which directed the magistrates to bind out free ne
groes for lazness vagrancy; which forbade them
to harbor Indian or mulatto slaves on pain ofpun-
ishment by fine, or to deal with negro slaves, on
pain of stripes; which annexed to the interdict of