The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-12-25
CITIZENSHIP.

Mr.. Reverdy johnson, one of the counsel FOR
the defendant in the case of bred Scott, in an
elaborate speech before the Court on the 18th,
argued that the Federal Constitution never in
tended "to consider black men as citizens u
This assumption will be maintained so long
as Slavery shall find supporters among our law
yers and politicians; and yet nothing is more
certain than that it is unauthorized by the Con.
stitution itself. That instrument, neither in
letter nor in spirit, directly nor by possible in
plication, contemplstes color, in the rights it
confers, or in the duties it enjons. 1t provides
that tho citizens, not white" citizens. "of
each State, shall be entitled to all privileges
and immunities of citizens in the several
States" And we know that when the Articles
of Confederation were reported to the Old
Congress, South Carolina sought in vain to
amend the article securing equal citizenship
in the several States-the basis of the existing
provision of the Constitution-by incorporating
the word white" before "c;tizens." The
Journal of proceedings shows that the under.
standing was, that, without this qualification,
the term would apply to free persons of all
colors, inhabiting the States. Since then, so
late as the agitation of the Missouri question,
in 1920, the people of Missouri were obliged
TO adopt proviso to an article in her Consti-
tuition respecting free negroes; and that provi.
sowas expressly intended to prevent the ope.
rstion of said article On the rights of colored
psople, where they we're recognised as citizens,
aad it was imposed upon Missouri by de-
dded majority of each House of Congress.
The State Department, it is well known, has
frequently refused passports to colored cti-
zens of some of the States, on the assumption
that they are not citizens, but there is no
warrant for such action; it is purely arbitrary.
1t has just as IN UGH right to deny the citizen.
ship of clergymen or women, because the for.
mer are subjected to certain disabilities in
some of the States, and the latter to disabili-
ties in all.
The opinion Of Chancellor Kent Is of more
weight than the assertions of Measrs. Writ.
Clayton, and Johnson:
Blacks" he remarks, +" whether born free
or in bondage, if born under the jurisdiction
and allegiance OF the United Safes, are natives,
and not aliens. They are what the common
law terms native born subjects. Subject and
citizen are in degree convertible terms. as
applied to natives, and though the term 8 iti-
zen seems to be appropriate to republican
freemen, yet we are, equally with the inhabit-
ants of other countries, subjects. For we are
equally bound by allegiance and subsection to
the Government and laws of the land. The
privilege of voting and the legal capacity for
Office are not essential to the character of a
citizen, for women are citizens without either
and free people of color may enjoy the one,
and may acquire, and hold, and devise. and
transmit, by hereditary descent, real and per
sonal estates. The better opinion, / should
think, is, that negroes or other slaves born
within or under the allegiance of tie United
States, are natural-born subjects, but not citi.
zens. Citizens, under our Constitution and
tdps, mean free Inhabitants, born Dithin the
United States, or naturalized under the la,os
Of Congress. If a slave born in the United
States be manumitted, or otherwise lawfully
discharged from bondage, or if black man
be born within the United States, and born
free, he becomes thenceforward citizen, but
under such disabilities as the laws of the States
may deem it expedient to pre-.
scribe to free persons of color"
This seems to US conclusive.