Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-02-06


consigning the Protestants Of France to dungeons
. or exile or those black enactmonts outlawing the
+ Catholics of Ireland and thank God for putting
1t into the heads of the weak men who issued it
c to attempt to justify their act, to lay bare hei
nakedncss, that the shock given our moral sensC
by the edict itself may be avenged by our contemp
for it's patent malice, and the weak aud iarfetcheC
reasons which sustain it.
y We are told in substance, in this opinion, tha
. the descendants of African slaves cannot he citi
zens of the Unitod States that though they may
. be citizens Of each States yet, by some uuwritten
understanding they were intended to BE excluded
from the operation Of the constitution Of the Unit
cd States; were not in that instrument referred t.
as either people citizens; and no State car
make them general citizens.
j. Passing for time the ialsehood of the assumed
b fact, will first enqnire into the nature of citizen
ship, and especially that Of the United States
and the power Of the States over it.
> Mr.. Bliss proceeding with this inquiry arrives
most satisfactorily to the conclusion that "aH the
citizens of each State are not only entitled to the
privileges and immunites Of citizens in the sever
al States, but are, thereby citizens Of the United
States. After still further demonstration Of the
competency Of the states to decide who are citizens
he proceeds to examine the historical accuracy Of
the court.
But the doctrnal berosy of this opinion does not
exceed its perversOns OF history. | do not now
propose to wade throrgh the mass of those perver.
siOns, to trace the garfield facts and al inuendOes
the appeals to low prejudice aud despltc fears ;
the SANDERS Of the great dead and miserable
reasoning III that pervado it, With sOrrOwiul
emotions have been through thcm all And have
sometimes imagined the shades OF Jay and Mar.
Shall-men with whose national doctrines | haYe
but little sympathy, yet men who loved law and re.
vered tjustce-t to be sadly looking er with me the
dirty page, wondering that they ever should have
looked to irresponsible bodies check upon pop
ular injustice
The main historical claim alone hayo time to
notice: when the Constitution was adopted"
says the syllabus, "they Gree nogroes not
garded in any of the States members Of the
| community which constituted the State, and wero
not numbered among its people or citizens" ,"
Ii this claim be true, it must be susceptible of
the most unequivOcal proof. Upon so important a
question, it Will never do to admit doubt. And
| the rule excluding these persons must have been
clear and expllcit; yet such explicit exclusion is
not pretended. Bat the fact is sought to be estnb
| iished 6y series Of strained iuferences and mere
gucSses. Resort is not had to law and the
testimony. Statutes, constitutions, records are
passed by as unworthy of attention and the as
sumption of the exclusion is founded upon the fact
alone that the Of its subjects have been
enslaved. and they themselves were sometimes un-
Justly reated--as though Governments had done
ything else in this world of ours, than Oppress,
directly Indirectly, class another Of their
citizens subjects.
| This, then, is the proposition "that no person
whose ancestors had been oppressed and who was
himself ll.treated by the colOnists could have been
| numbered among the people or citizens" l would
advise caution to those who propose to accept this
proposition, close examination ut the genealogic
al tree. lest the conclusion might apply where least
expected,
Bat the great birth act of the Republic is in the
way Of the court, and the audncou5 sacrilege with
which that act is ted, confess, surprises me.
The great principles o. justice and natural law
upon which it was tuunded-those principles
that alone redeemed fl hers from the charge of
criminal retelion-Gro limited to race TO Il mere
fraction Of the human family; and failing ia ar
sument to prove this limitation tho court magis.
crully pronounces it too clear for dispute The
ldea 50 sublime yet simple that the common Faith
er Of mankind has endowed lis children with
rights which cannot be taken from hem--the right
to lie aud the right to ibery-this divine idea, the
harmonic chain OF human society, before which
our fathers bowed in humble contrition for their
own inconsistency is shUrn Of its h0liuess is made
but the precept of tyranny. The Scntence, that
has commanded the homage of mankind, this court
you'd thus sneeringly reader: I'VE hold these
truths to be selt.evdcnt: that the superior races
if born of free mothers, are created equal that
they endowed by their Creator with certain in
lenable rights that among them are. life, liberty
and the pursuit Of happiness thar 10 secure these
rights ssGoyornments are instituted, deriving their
just powers from the consent of such races, If free
ana white, among tue SNerneu.
But our fathers deserve not this tauut That
they are not wholly consistent is too true-and |
what human institutions realize the ideal of those
who arc leading US onward and upward ?--but none |
more keenly sensible than they OF this ncon.
sistency; none cond be more anxious to be redeem
ed from its charge and not by aposacy to their
sublime faith but by works meetf for repentance
We accordingly find the great and good among
them anxiously la boring to carry out the doctrines
Of the Declaration mud understood by them,
not by this curt. Franklin, Jay, Hamilton, and
others, became officers OF societies for the abolition
of Slavery and protection Of The free. And to il /
lustrate apOstacy from these truths, in con
trast with their former appreciation, ask the at.
teuton to the fact that recent officer of the same
society Of which Franklin was President, for pur-
suing its legitimate wOrk-a work that wOve the |
brightest flowers in the chaplet the brow of the
phlosopher-was illegally thrown into prison by
Federal judge, while his own State refused him
protection and his own city appauded the outrage. !
So Washington and Jefferson, and all others whose +
names posterty holds in reverence, united in con-
demning Slavery, and especially as garjng in.
consistency with the principles Of the Declaration
But, to be more specific; This court was forced
to admit, and thereby admitted away its whole /
case, that all who citizens in the several States
at the time of the adoption Of the Constitution, |
became citizens of the United States. page 406)
So We have only to inquire whether free blacks
were then citizens in any of the States
assert that the native born among them were
then citizens in all the States, because
|. They were citizens by the general law, by .
virtue of their nativity, unless excluded by express
and unequivOcal enactments; aud | have been un-
able to tiud such exclusion in any of the States.
g The Articles of Confederation had made
them general citizens. "The free inhabitants Of
each of these States paupers, ,vagabonds, and lug-
tive from justice, excepted, shall be entitled to all
the privileges and immunites Of free citizens in the
several States. 1t would seem that nothing could /
be more plain than land especially when un
successful attempt was made to amend it by insert
ing white" before ''inhabitants,' and especially
also, tho article itself contains exceptions
including negroes. And yet with characteristic
efrontery this court that "free inhabitants
cannot include free negroes, and for the reason
mark the logio-that the Southern States, in order
to throw the chief burden of tho war upon the
States best able to bear it, procured the adoption
shnIIll La