The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-03-17
ARE NEGROES CITIZENS Z

In discussing this question tho New York Journal Of
Commerce says "The question is not whether negroes
ought TO be citizens Of the United States entitled to C
zenship in with white persons but whether Their
are so in fact under the constitution of the United Siesl
1t is not new question: but Al old one and the view
taken of il by the Supreme Court not in substance new
but old In another column win be found extract from
decision pronounced years ago by the late Chief Justice
Daggett of New Haven of the soundest ables and
most learned and independent judges that Connecticut
ever had We ourselves in these columns have uni ormy
held the sans opinion whenever have alladed to ths
subject But it is not to prove this much to show
how extensively the opinion held throughout the
country until the Of negroworship commenced, that
we copy the following editorial article"
The article referred to by the Journal Of Commerce APP
peared in its issue of January 49, 1882 and follows
DAT the time of the adoption Of the constitution tb
were various classes of persons-whites Indians slaves
each of which was recognised distinct In the oonstu
tion they designated respectively as citizens free per-
sons Indians, and other persons
From this speciality and difference In designation tia
perfectly evident that the trainers OF the constitution In
tended conne the term citizen to portion only OF those
inhabitants Of the United States II will be further EVIL
dent contemporaneous acts OF Congress- and from the
language OF State constitutions that colored Der.
sons and Indians intended to be excluded from The
designation The first legislation under the clause tia
q
form of naturalization took place in $780, This Ian,
guage is used in the act ANY alien being free Ghs per-
SON. may become ctizon by complying with the require
mems hereinafter pamed In the law of 1895 ii de.
cared "A free schie person may become citizen, The
acts of 17es 1902, 1873 and 1924, continue the same
phraseoogy. Although any srhae person coming from
abroad can be made citizen by the process OF
ton black cannot-a distinction founded wholly on
color
"The laws relatug to the transportation Of the mail
and the of the post offices exclude blacks from
the right participate in this privilege distinction Of
the same character.
aThe early constitutions Of many Of the States Of this
Union maintained the distinction. Delaware Mary
land Connecticut Virginia, South Carolina Ohio, Loui
ana Mississippi Illinois, Alabama, Indiana and Rhode
Island each had clauses combining the privilege Of the
franchise, or of being representatives 10 whites New
York in her constitution, makes distinction between
whites and blacks bat In different form. In the recent
constitution of indiana blacks excluded from the right
to settle within her limits distinction equally evident
and maintained in acts Of the legislatures Of v
States forbdding between the two classes
and preventing the enjoyment OF various privileges andm
munes' part of colored persons which
to the whites These edngs the part of States and
these Of Congress and OF legislatures constitute amos
imposing Interpretation of the meaning Of the clause
ferred but yet it is contended that nativebon COL
oed person citizen although born of coored foreign pa
rents who could not under our laws become naturazed
II this is So all these clauses of State constitutions and
these several acts void In previous article the de-
cson made by the highest legal tribunal in this State that
Indians citsens referred to. They stand
the ground free colored person, with this Difference
that they have always been the SOIL nave
been free; whereas the blacks imported from Africa
slaves and the time of the adoption OF the consu
ton they existed such in twelve OF the then thirteen
States of this Union. Like decisions have been made in
other States and the of Tennessee have decided that
free blacks citizens The State of Connecticut in
the celebrated brought by her against Prudence Gran
dali made through her superior court like decision In
deed all the judicial decisions in perfect harmony with
grave aud conclusive interpretations presented in the
action of Congress- oSaes and OF legislatures They JUS
w the declaration that free coored persons were not In
embraces only whites and substituted for that OF sub
ect when threw off allegiance to the British Grown
In constituting the constitution of the United States the
circumstances existing at the me the preceding history
and coutemporan,ous construction put upon by its
authors, all to be considered They are conclusive
against the extraordinary claim but recently made in a
ton the citizenship Of blacks The action OF nearly
every State in the Union has been equally conclusive
That action has been uniform and constant in direction
against their claim The friends of the claim involve them
selves in this dilemma that the trainers OF the constitution
who limited to citizens the right President Of the
United States senator in Congress, yet intended that
the office should be held by who under State laws was
debarred from marrying white, who could not sit on
juries who could fiji any public Office who could not
except under special laws take land by descent who could
vote who could not become legislator who could not
pass from one Safe into another, who in society was
looked upon as of degraded CASTE who might be held
slave The error is too clear to need any abored
reutation'
We transfer columns the article referred to by The
Journal which contains the extracts from the decision Of
Chief Justice Daggett 1t is copied from the New Haven
Register
aThere TO be Misunderstanding as to the
decision of the superior of this State given by Chief
Justice Daggett in the OF Prudence CrandR, more
than twenty years ago. Some say that the court only
decided that negro citizen of Connecticut be.
cause by constitution he cannot be eleetor and
that the question 1t arises under the constitution oil the
United States recently decided by the Supreme Court Of
the United States Washington left untouched But
this entire misspprehenson of the Connecticut de-
cson II will be seen looking at the case in The loln
volume OF the Connecticut Reports that thu Chief Justice
Daggett in the superior Of this State went the whole
length Of Chief Justice fancy of the Supreme Court OF the
United States in deciding that descendant of the African
ing OF the United States constitution few extracts from
the carefully prepared opinion of the late Chief Justice
Daggett, found in the Cranda case will Enthusiastically
show the coincidence of the two decisions The Connect
| cut court by Chief Justice Daggett, say .
The persons contemplated in this act CITIZENS
within the obvious meaning of that section Of the cops
tuition Of the United States which have Just read Let me
begin by putting this plain question Are stdUes citizens
AT the adoption Of the constitution of the United State
every State slave State. Massachusetts had begun
| the work OF emancipation within her own borders And
Connecticut early l7e4 had also enacted laws max.
ing all those free the age of % who might be born with
In The State after that time We all know that slavery
recognised in that constitution; and it is the duty Of tins
court TO take the constitution 1t s for have sworn
to support IT, Although the term slavery cannot be found
written out in the constitution, yet mistake the
1 object OF the Sd section Of the 4ih article
i
ut has also been urged that as coored persons may
commit treason, they must be considered citizens Every
person born in the United States well every person
who resides here allegiance of some sort the gov
ernmen because the government affords him protection
Treason against this government in evin war
against The United States aiding s enemy in time Of