New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-05-22


make the basis of their argument. The oHy
further reference to State legislation, so far as THIS
point is concerned to be found in the argument OF
the FIVE Shareholders is contained in the following
passages, which we quote from the opinion As
officially published:
1--WE need not refer this point particularly to the
laws of the present slavehoding States Their statute
books full Of provisions in relation to this class IN
the same spirit with thsMaryand law which have
before quoted. They have continued TO treat them
an inferior class and to subject them to strict police
regulations drawing broad line OF distinction be-
tween the citizen and the slave, and iegslatng
in relation 10 them the principles which pre-
vailed the time OF the Declaration of Independence
As relates TO those States il is too plain for argument
that they meaning, We suppose, persons OF Airlcan
descent have never been regarded a. part OF the
people or citizens Of the State supposed 10 possess
any political rights which the dominant class might
not withhold or grant at their pleasure. And a. long
ago 1922 the Court of Appeals Of Kentucky decided
that free negroes and musttOes were not citizens
within the meaning Of the Constitution Of the United
States; and the correctness of this decision recog-
nized and the same doctrine affirmed IN l Meigs,
Tennessee Rep. 33l.
II would be impossible to enumerate and compress
in the space usually allotted 10 opinion OF Court,
the various laws marking the condition of this race,
which passed from time to time after the Revol-
ton and before and since the adoption OF the Constr
tuition Of the United States. In addition 10 those
already referred to- it il sufficient to say that Chan.
ceor Kent, whose accuracy and research NOBODY wiz
question, states in the sixth edition OF his Comment
aries published in lSiS second VOL 25S note b, that
in no part of the country except Maine did the African
race in point of fact participate equally with the
whites in the exercise of civil aud political rights.
Now. to this argument Of the FIVE Shareholders
based on the alleged sentiment of the country as
exhibited in the legislation Of the States, we have
to remark, in the first place, that it proves too
IT. +ha ptatio of
the FIVE Shareholders and wholly overlook their re-
markabe uppressons-evidently with the intent
TO misead and deceive, unless, indeed, we suppose
on their part an incredible degree of ignorance
suppressions to which we shall presently advert;
granting for the moment, that the five shareholders
have made out their case and proved to a demon
stration what, as they iDgenuousy state it is diff
&" fcut to realize, A" that at the time of the Revou-
ton the opinion was fixed and universal in the
civilized portion of the white race, that persons
Of African descent "were beings of an inferior
order" " altogether unfit to associate with the
white race, either in social or political relations,
and " having no rights which the white man was
bound to respect" 70 be &" treated as an ordinary
article of merchandise and traffic whenever a
pTbUl cOulu Dt w IT. " toihh"u N"h-
sent" excluded from civilized governments and
% the family of nations, and doomed to slavery
"neyer thought of or spoken of except property,
and when the claims of the owner or the profits
of the trader were supposed to need projections"
let us suppose the five shareholders to have
proved this, and then it would follow surely
enough that it would be absurd and impossible to
suppose that negroes, under any circumstances, or
that any number of negroes, however limited, could
have been invested with the privileges of citizens of
the United States. Such an act, indeed, would
have been as mad as the action of certain crazy
Roman Emperor-for the privilege of acting before
the world the part of mailman is not limited to
Supreme Courts-who caused his horse to be
elected Roman Consul. But them ii would also
follow, just as surely, that it would be impossible
and absurd to suppose that any class of negroes
could have enjoyed, either in Colonial or State
times the position of Colonial or State citizenship,
especially that highest attribute of it Since with US
even Supreme Judges are but the servants of the
people), the enjoyment of the elective franchise.
And this brings us to the second observation
which we have to make on the case of the colored
men as stated by our impartial and th.seeking
Judges-the suppressions of which they are guilty.
They concede (for purposes Of their OWN that the
States possess the right of admitting any class
of persons they may see fit to local citizenship,
not extending beyond their own limits; but they
take very good care to suppress all mention of the
fact against the consequences of which the above
concession was intended to guard, that both in
colonial and revolutionary times, and at the time
of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and
since-in fact at the time Of the adoption of the
Federal COnstitution-n every State of the Union
except South Carolina free negroes did possess and
did exercise the elective franchise
This decisive fact, so fraudulently kept out of
sight by our five slaveholders-who, whatever might
have been the case with others in former times,
evidently proceed themselves On the principle that
persons of African descent have not now and never
had any rights which white men are bound to re-
spect-this single fact alone not only knocks out
the whole underpinning Of that fabric of perpetual
Slavery. of which this slaye-trader's argument at
tempts to make the Declaration Of Independence
and the Constitution of the United States the chief
corner-sones but il furnishes us with the means of
converting these five slavehO1ing judges into so
many BALKANS, compelled against their will to pro-
phesy the truth. 4" II is true" say these sons of
Beor so ready at the invitation of the princes of the
land to curse the strange people who have come
up out of Egyptian bondage, or worse Ii is
true every person and erery class or description Of
persons who were, at the time of the adoption of
"the Constitution, recognized as citizens in the sew
eral States became also citiz Ems of this pOlit