Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-02-17

of their employment as seamen. more than in
amy other sections of our State, do they come
in conflict with this provision. Chief Justice
fancy says:
true every person, and every and description
Constitution, recognized citizens in the States
other; was formed by Them and them and their pos
erity but for none else And the personal rights and
intended 10 embrace those, only, who were then
members OF the several State communities who should
afterwards by birthrght otherwise become members
according to the provisions OF the constitution and the
principles which it was founded 1t was the union Of
those were that time members of the distinct and
separate political communities into one political family;
whose power certain specified was TO
the whole territory of the United States And it
State which he did not before possess and placed him. in
every other state upon perfect equality with its own
citizens to rights of person and rights of property 1t
made him citizen of the United States
Now, sir in respect to my own State. In
1880, she adopted her present constitution; be-
fore which the shackles fell from the limbs OF
every slave within her borders, and he stood
forth clothed with all the privileges, rights and
immunities of a citizen. The constitution of
Massachusetts, in the rights, privileges and
immunities of citizen, is no more respecter
of persons than is the God her people worship.
From 1880 until 1889, when the Constitution
of the United States was adopted, every color
ed man who lived in that community, was just
as much a citizen as every white man. And
the Chief Justice, in this opinion, says that he
and his poStGfty are to-day citizens of the Uni
ted States, and have all the rights and priyil-
eyes and immunitles in the State of Oregon
that every citizen of that State has. | cannot
understand, sir, how a member from my own
State in the honest discharge of his duty, as
honest a discharge of it as my own, can come
to the conclusion that it is his duty, by his
vote, to breathe the breath of life into provis-
ion of constitution that would disfranchise a
larn nft ba of
desire to call up, i'll the recollection of my
colleague, the efforts Massachusetts has made
heretofore to test the rights of her citizens to
the privileges and immunities of citizenship in
other States. | desire to nave it remembered
i do not intend ever to forget it-that Mas
sachusetts has utterly failed to have the ques-
ton tried in the highest tribunal of the coun-
try, to know whether or not there is any force
and effect in this provision of the Constitution
as expounded, even in this latter day, by the
Supreme Court Of the United States. l, for
one, do not intend to forget the indignities
heaped upon her, in her struggle to secure to
her citizens their rights under this clause. |
will never vote to incorporate into the organic
law provision under which the constitutional
rights of citizens Of my own State have been
trampled in the dust, and her own State SOW
ereignty defed and insulted. Sir, desire to
call attention to the phraseology of this proyis-
ion; for there seems to be studied malignty
in this phraseology that cannot well compre-
bend i'll the constitution OF State.
free negro mulatto not resident in this State at
the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall
come, reside, or be, within the State
They could not condescend to say "volun-
tarily." A citizen of my State may be drifted
by stress of weather into their harbors a
whaler, with a citizen of my State, included in
this provision, may be brought in there and
the humble sailor having no command of the
ship, no responsibility, and no control, may be
taken in there against his will /; and yet this
constitution imposes duty upon the Legisa
ture to provide penalties to be visited upon his
head. Without being aware of it, he may
come within the limits OF that State and incur
the penalty. And, furthermore, he who shall
"employ" or "harbor" such person comes I'M
der the same visitation. They have not in
serted knowingly" 1t may be done igno-
rently andinnocently, and yet come within the
letter of this provision
And, sir, do not know by what test a man
may tell one Of those from another class of col
ored persons which this provision of the con-
stitutiOn permits to remain there. The con-
stitution has made no provision that shall wear
trontlets upon their brow; but whatsoever,
knowingly or not, innocently or designedly,
whether in obedience to the Divine injunction
to feed the hungry and cothe the naked, or
with design to violate the law all alike are
denounced as transgressors of the law, and
each one and all come within this provision of
the constitution.
Again. take the provision in reference to
Cinnamon. While that provision permits one
class OF Cinnamon to reside within that State,
with all the personal rights and privileges of
citizens, it disables, while it permits them to
reside there, another class Of Cinnamon and
thus that State, which pretends to come here
upon the cardinal principal of equality, builds
up two classes of foreign men in that commu-
nifty; one with personal rights and privileges
as citizens, and another disabled with no rights
to hold real estate or to exercise any of the
great lmmunities OF citizens; one class of China.
men mere serfs, and the other clothed with all
personal rights. Now there is a provision
IN our treaty with China, providing that the
United States and China shall be hereafter
at peace wsth each other, and with all the citi-
zens thereof, "Withom exception to person OF plac-
eS :; and l would like to ask gentlemen how
that provision COMFORTS with the provision of
the constitution to which | have referred |
would like to know if there were such a provi-
sion existing between us and Great Britain,
and we should make an mvidious distinction
between different classes of her subjects, dis
aiding upon the same soil some of Them and
granting to others the personal rights of the
citizen, whether we should not be called to ac-
count for it 1t is an infraction of treaty stip-
ulatlons, which are the supreme law of the
land
But desire to say, sir, before | take leave
of that provision which denies to a certain
class of coored persons the right to bring suits
IN the courts OF Oregon, that it exceeds in cru
city and lnhumanity any provision touching
the same subject in any slave code in the
United States, so far as l know. There is not
a 81 sic Gtn4.. IL. L.
laws, right to maintain a suit in her courts
l believe such an inhuman provision could not
stand an hour, sir, in your own State Of South
Carolina. Let any man bring coored person
INTO oregon and claim him as a slave if this
constitution Is sanctioned by our votes and
made the organic law Of Oregon, there is no
way given among men by which he could in
woke her courts to give him his freedom. 1t
is reserved for this socaled free State to invent
method more subtitle and effectual for main
tanning slavery in her own borders than was
ever devised South of Mason and Dixon's line.
mus 1t is that the most efficient instrumental
tiles for carrying out the great work of the
slave propaganda are furnished by the North,
and III the name of freedom This is the false
and hollow-hearted pretence that Oregon is a
free State.
There is one other provision of this constitu-
ton which have not alluded to, although l
have already quoted it. 1t is as follows;
"And the Legislative Assembly shall have power to re-
strain and regulate the immigration this State of per
SONS nOtquaedt to become citizens of the United
Under this provision the African slave trade
can be reopened. That is now prevented only
by law of Congress- We enact this provi
sion by our votes in its favor and it grants full
authority to bring blacks from Africa, and to
prescribe the terms and provisions upon which
1t may be done. | know of no way that any