Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-02-08


u whole body OF free citizens, and specially
o tn, political power all free male citizens
n full age in every State of the Union.
c asked the attention ~ the House the 9th,
y day to the fact, and 1 callItheir attention
it now, that in the Articles ofConfeder
l tion 1t was expressly provided in werds
o follows:
i 'Ihe free inhabitants OF each Of these States panp.r
vagnbohds aud fncitIves from Justice excepted snail
entitled 10 all privileges and mnurites OF free citizei
IN the several Statesn
i Gan any one fail to perceive that the term
the people of the several States" tarticl
/, four borrowed literally from the Confej
. . Grafton ant embodied in your Constitution
must mean the free citizens Of each State
; Who does not know that under the Con
federation the majority OF male free cti
zsns OF full age held the right to thej elec
tive franchise in every State then in tn
Union?
Iappealto every gcntleman in thisHouse {
bear witness, that in every State Of the orig
inal thirteen, on the day that the Conven
tion embodied in the Constitution the words
THE people of the several States" the ma
jority Of free male citizens of full age b,
the express terms of the State Constitution,
and their statute laws, held the political
power Of the several States The employ
ment OF those terms in the Constitution OF
the United States was therefore hut the
clearest declaration that under the Consti
tuition of the United States, as it had been
under the Confederation, the right to ex
erclse the elective franchise, to elect Repre-.
sentatives, was the right of the majority of
free male citizens over twenty.one years OF
age, and that this right Of the people should
continue while tho Constitution of the
United States continued and remained un-
changed
The words 'free persons are also used in
yonr ConstitutionT therefore by the words
free citizens" and "free persons" as used in
your constitution and in the articles fconfed-
Grafton. it was necessarily implied that there
were citizens in the Republic not free. but
bond. 1t was understood by the trainers of
the Constitution, and was expected by them
and intended. that the day would come
when the prefix Stree" before "persons" in
that instrument should cease to be operative
and become meaningless. r..
Sir, the Constitution was framed with a
view to that result, and to make it newt.
able. Ii was hoped that the day of deliver
ancn to the bond citizens OF the Republic
would come, not by violence, but by force of
public opinion, operating on the minds and
conssclences of the people and speaking
finally, either by the action Of each State or
through an amended Constitution, as the
supreme law of the land.
Ii gentlemen doubt upon this subject,
they will pardon me for asking their consid-
Grafton to one or two provisions of the Con.
stitufion Of the United States
First, the ninth section of the first article
provides that
'Ihp mic mi of
of the States existing shall think proper aint
shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year
This was simply provision to the end
that the Constitution. as to the foreign slave
trade by any of the States then existing,
should not take effect until 1908.
In section three, article four, it is pro-
vided as s'folows:
Union.n - 0s'''' '''' '''''
The attempt was made in the Convention
to add to this provision for the admission of
new States, the words "on the same terms !
with the original States" thereby securing
to every new State admitted before 1903 the |
reserved power, not right, but power, to !
unite with the States then existing in the t
wild and guilty traffic in slaves both by land
and sea- cFf .t rG
Thank God, the great body of the Con-
yention rejected with scorn the proposition.
What did that rejection mean? They struck |
out on tho 29th.of August, 1887, the words,
upon the same terms with the original
States" What did that mean? 1t meant
that there should be no slave States admit
ted into this Union. 1t meaift that no new
States should be admitted under the Consti-
tuition armed with hepower to practice that
INJUSTICE in common with the then existing
S,tates:for twentygears. The provision ION
the same terms with the original States" was
rejected; and what was the result? My
own noble Commonwealth, Ohio. was ad-
mitted into the Union in 1902, six years be-
tore the Constitution could speak against
the foreign slave trade carried oa by the
original States. Ohio was admitted as
every man knows, only on the express con-
1ition that she should aiot then or forever
after engage in the domestic or foreign
slave trade.
think, sir, have said enough and more
han enough to justify the remark that it
vas intended by the trainers of the Consti-
ution that the day should come when the
words free person" in the Constitution
would cease to be operative, for the simple {
'eason that all would be free and none bond
n the United States.
= Mr.. Speaker, touching the construction
which have put upon the words of the I
Constitution beg to call the attention of {
he House to few authorities to show that
~ the terms "the people of the several {
States" the Constitution did guaranty to t
he maiority of free citizens in every State {
n this Uunion the right to control, by suf {
rage, the future power of their States and
he future power Of the Republic, but that
" the guarantee the majority did not be.
ONE empowered to take away the equal t
lights of the minority who were their peers.
read from Story, (3d Story, page 565 y t
''It has always been we'll nnders,ood among jurisis
this country that the citizens OF each State constitute
the States and that the citizens OF each State in he
nion are Ipso FAcro citizens OF the United States"
Rawle writes as follows: '
he Citizens of each State constituted the citizens Of
lie United Sthtes when the Constitution adopted. .
he rights which apperaia TO them citizens of those 7
:speciiye Commonweal alths accompanied them in the
rIafio Of the great compound Commonwealth which n
lsuedg They bee anne citizens of the latter, without
,asing be cilizens OF the former and he who was
ilseqlHntly born citizen OF "A state became M the
oment Of his birth citizen of tho United States.n- 4
sawe Oh the Constitution, p. 90. tu ..'.t y
Chancellor Kent says:1 as.-. q
"If a slave born in the Ured States be manumited .
Otherwise lawfully discharged from bondage, or If
black man be born within the United States aud born t
ee, he becomes henceorward citizen.p-[2 Kent's 4,
fau halifi m .