The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-04-02
JEFFERSON AND KENT AGAINST TANEY.

The Boston atlas, by way of showing what
Jefferson thought as to the possibility of per-
sons of color being citizens OF the U United States,
quotes the following passage from proclama-
ton issued by Jefferson in reference to the
famous outrage of the British man-of-war Leop-
ard upon the frigate Chesapeake. To under
stand the force of this quotation, it should be
recollected that of the four seau.en taken from
the Chesapeake on the claim Of being deserters
from the British service, the only two born in
the United States were two colored men,
tives of Maryland. The passage in Jefferson's
proclamation is a follows.
"This enormity was not without provocation
or justlhable cause, but was committed with
the avowed purpose of taking by force from
ship of war of the United States part of her
crew; and that no circumstance might be want
ing to mark its character, it had been previous
ly ascertsined that the seamen demanded were
natiUe citizens Of the United States"
But not only did Jefferson ascribe citizen
ship to free colored persons, he 6scribed it also
| TO slaves. In that famous aud g often-quoted
denunciation of Slavery in his 'ssNotes on Vir-
ginia," after enumerating some Of its evils, he
proceeds as follows:
"And with what execration should the states
man be loaded, who, permitting enc half Of the
citizens thus to trampJe on the rights of the
other, transforms those into des2ots and these
into enemies, destroys the morhls of the one
and the amor patrie of the other?"
In this passage, Jefferson ascri3 pes citizenship
to the slaves no less than to the reemen.
Chancellor Kent's opinion 81 the right of
negroes to citizenship is no less explicitly ex-
pressed, in his Commentaries on American
Law, vol ii, p. 258, note:
"Perhaps, after all, the questi On whether
negro is or Is not a citizen of the United States
depends more On verbal than 4 an essential
distinction. 1t is certain that Il !, Constitution
and statute law of New York (Eonst., art. 2 {;
N. 7. Revised Statutes, vol. l, .. l26, sec. y
speak of men of color as being citizens, and
capable of being freehoders and entitled to
vote. And if, at common law, all human beings
born within the liegeance Of the king, and under
the kings obedience, were natufAlborn sub
Jects, and not aliens, do not peaceive why this
doctrine does not apply to these United States
in all cases in which there is no express con.
stitutionsl or statute declaration to the con-
trary. Blacks, whether born free or in bondage
if born under the jurisdiction and allegiance of
| the United States, are natives, and not aliens
| They are what the common law terms natural
born subjects. Subject and citizen are, in
degree, convertible terms, as applied to natives;
and though the term citizen seems to be ap-
propriate to republican freemen, yet we are,
equally with the inhabitants Of all other coun.
tres, subjects, for we are equally bound by allie
glance and subsection to the Government and
law of the land. The privilege of voting, and the
legal capacity for Office, are not essential to the
character of citizen, for women are citizens with
out either; and free people of color may enjoy
the one, and may acquire, and hold, and devise,
and transmit by hereditary descent, real and
personal estates. The better opinion should
think was, that negro or other slaves, born with
in and under the allegiance of the United States,
| are natural-born subjects, but not citizens.
Citizens, under our Constitutions and laws,
mean free inhabitants, born within the United
States, or naturalized under the laws of Con-
| gress. !fd slare, born in the United States, be
| mdnumitted, or otheracise Lowfully discharged
from bondage, or If a black man be born icith-
an the United States, and born free, he becomes
| thence fOrtodrd O citizen, but under such disa-
bilities as the laws of the States respectively
may deem it expediept to prescribe to free
| persons of color"
BARBARoUs TREATMENT OF SLAvE.-A man
named Vincent Rcsson, says the West Ten
nessee Argus, has recently been run out of
that town for appearing to claim runaway
| slave woman, who was induced to leave his
service by the most barbarous treatment we
ever heard of. The Argus says:
eve are informed that he pushed her out
into the weather during the coolest of last
winter, bare-footed and poorly clad, until her
fingers and toes we're badly frosted he then
took his knife and cut them of, and threw them
into the fre-poured hot water and threw hot
embers on her-beat and abused her in every
way which the devil himself could have invent
ed and she ia only eleven or twelve years old.
At length, she could bear it no longer, and ran
away-she was taken up and Brought to town
for imprisonment in horrible condition, cover
ed with sores, and nearly dead"
| A REMEDY FOR DYsPEPsIA.-The Oxygena.
ted Bitters have been tested by scientific men,
and proved to combine the most valuable tonic
properties. Being free from alcohol, no reac
ton is suffered by the most delicate constitu'
tons.