Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1848-02-22
For the Signal.
aThe Negro Clause"

gard TO negroes. The State of Illinois is
new state; she has not, like the old
states, participated in negro slavery
Missouri, slave state, is on our western
boundary; Kentucky ON the south each
pass laws in regard to negroes. Free
negroes are nuisance and a pest to
slave state; that being so, severe laws
IN regard to them arc put in force-the
consequence is, that il the free blacks of
those states, will pour in to our state. A
master III those states, is not permitted to
set his negroes free in the state, without
making himself liable, in some measure,
Tor their support and conduct and when
slave becomes old. feeble or decrepid,
they are sent into Illinois and set free
and so become pest to the people of this
state. Their slaves are daily running
away, and flee into this state; pursuit takes
place, and there are in our own state, evil
minded persons enough, who will do their
utmost to prevent an arrest fthe fugitives.
The consequence is, that riots, assaults
and afrays, take place. The cost that
the people of this State have been to in
this matter in the last few years, is i'm.
mense.
No invitation, no inducement, should
be held out to the negroes to come here.
Silence in our laws on this subject, is tan
tamount to an invitation. Without severe
regulations, our state will, in ten years,
be overrun by negroes. But it is said by
abolitionists that the proposed Negro Sec
ton of the New Constitution, is contrary
to that part of Article I'd of the Constitu.
ton of the United States which is as fol.
lows: ''The citizens of each State shall
be entitled to all privileges and immuni.
ties Of citizens in the several States"
In l176 at the time and long before, the
States assumed their nationality, slavery
existed in the Ststes: every negro in the
states, was held in bondage. All of the
Southern States, New York, Vermont.
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other
states tolerated slavery. The negroes
were brought here, it is true, against their
will, and detained against their consent;
they were treated as property and degra-
ded, without hope. No white person in
those days. pretended to consider the
Black his equal; hence the reason why
so little is said in the Constitution of the
United States and in other national docu-
ments concerning the African race. True
there was no necessity to speak of them,
any more than it was necessary to speak
OF any other property. Such was their
condition when the Revolution took place;
but the Revolution did not benefit the Ac
rican. They had nothing to say in that
matter-they were not permitted; and
when that war closed they were still left
in hondage-still degraded.
Writers, on the law of nations, say ''no
person can be made subject of govern
ment against their consent" In the case
OF Chapman, LIST of Dallas, $50 CHI, JUS
tice Mkean said that sin civil wars every
man chooses his party. None are sub
jects of the adopted government; but
those who have freely assented to it,
The Revolution resulted in total disso-
luton from British government. and new
one formed. In the case Of jackson VS..
White, the same doctrine is recognized.
and the court said ''every member of the
old government must have the right to de-
eide for himself, whether he will continue
with society which has so fundamental
ly changed its condition as the Revolution
has ours /; that no one will become citi-
Zens OF the new government unless he
chooses voluntarily TO submit to it,
Therefore, the Africans having been
brought and detained here against their
consent ond will, cannot become citizens
OF the United States. Blacks whether
born free from slavery or not, are not AID
cOnnOt become citizens; unless by revo
luton or other force. In the case of Pru
dence Crandall, decided in Connecticut so
late as 1888, the Court said "that Free
Blacks are not citizens within the mean
ing OF the term as used in the Constitution
OF the United StaIes."
The above section of the United States
Constitution applies, says Chan. Kent,
"only to natural born or dull naturalzed
citizens, and ifthey remove from one state
to another they are entitled to the orivi-
leges that persons of the same description
are entitled to in the state to which thew
removed, and to none other. The laws
and usages of our state, cannot be pre-
tended 20 prescribe qualifications for cit.
liens to be claimed and exercised in other
states, in contravention to their local pol
icy, see I'd Kent com. 70. have shown
that negroes are not and cannot become
citizens. but it may be said that the negro
may be naturalized according to the acts
ofCongress. That act confines that mat.
ter to Stree achite persons - of course the
African race is there excluded.
Because the state of Massachusetts
permits certain class of negroes to vote.
that does not make them voters in other
states, neither does it make them citizens
there or elsewhere. Voting is no test.