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Show l-'lll::i'f DAY-iltOilNING SESSION. this shall qualify them for the purpose.:; of government, and remove the ob· jection to the enjoyment of equal rights, it remains for the friends of that circuitous and anomalous system to inform us. I am aware that much excitement has recently been produced by the question here in this statethe very first, I say it to her glory, to abolish sl~very-~s t~ t?e elective franchise of the blacks. Now, I confess, as to tlus questiOn, 1f 1t could be considered in the abstract, I should feel no great anxiety. Thi.:; is not the point of view in which it disturbs me. It is the manifestation of obsequiousness to the views of the South,-the want of that Roman firmness, in the prosecution of right, which becomes a great state,- the disposition to recede after forty years, even beyond the starting point of improvement,that is calculated to astound and appal every individual who contemplates it. The disposition, not simply to withhold a right never constitutionally granted, but to withdraw a right, previously conferred by the Constitution, in mean subserviency to popular clamor,-which, in this instance, at least, is assuredly not the voice of God. The names of Sergeant, of Chauncey, of Forwan], of Cope, of Biddle, of Dunlop, of Chandler, of Earl, aml other distinguished members of the Convention, as opposing this inexcusable inva· sion of the rights of the helpless and forlorn, will be handed down to an applauding posterity, while many of those by whom it was suggested and maintained, will be blessed by an oblivion, which they have so richly de· served; or if remembered at all, will be remembered only upon the prin· ciple, that a great name not more survives from good than evil deeds. I would rather, much rather, he recorded as one of the minority, on that great question of hllman rights, than emblazoned on history as one of the Spartan band that sacrificed their lives to the salvation of their country in the straits or Thermopylre. This is no time to discuss legal questions. The clauses in the different Constitutions speak for themselves. That of the year 1790 provides that, "In elections by the citizens, every freeman of the age of twenty-one years, having resided in the state two years, next before the elections, and within that time paid a state or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least six months before the election, shall enjoy the rights of an elector.-A,.t. 3, Sec. I. That of 1838 runs thus:-" In elections by the citizens, every WJJITE freeman. of the age of twenty-one years, having resided in this state one year, and in the election district where he offers 'to vote. ten days imme· diately preceding such election, and within two years paid a state or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least ten days before the election, shall enjoy the rights of an elector. But a citizen of the United States, who had previously been a qualified voter of this state, :tnd removed there· from and retunlf!d, and who shall have resided in the election district, and paid taxes as aforesaid, shall be entitled to vote, after residing in the state six months."-Article 3, Section 1. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania haR recently decided, that the words "every freeman," in the old Constitution, signified every white freeman. This decision is said to be founded upon a case in the High Court of Errors and Appeals, which case has no more to do with this subject, and I fear not so much, as the moon. The question determined in the Court of Errors was as to the slavery or freedom of an alleged bondsman. It was not whether a freeman whose face bore the shadowed livery of the burnished sun, was distinguished in his civil rights from one of lighter complexion: no such thing. The enjoyment of the right of franchise, almost wherever it was asserted throughout this stale, apart from the plain DAVID PAUl. BROWN'S ORATJOI". 27 terms of the Constitution, was an apt interpretation of the right~ possessed. As to decisions by inferior tribunals, they are of but li ttle accOIJ!lt. But it is a subject of deep regret, that so highly elevated, honorable, and dignified a tribunal, as that to which I have referred, should be betrayed into so gross aJI(l lamentable an error. lt would be matter of great interest here to examine into the diJTerent views expressed by the judges, and the members of the Convention, upon thi(all important subject. Time will not allow the examination. But this, at least, may be said,-that the judges deter· mined, that a colored freeman never had the right to vote, 1mder the old Constitution i and that some of the adverJ:aries, the most distinguished adversaries of that right, in the Convention, gave as a reason, and almost the sole reason, for the introduction of the word white, that a colored free~ man actually did enjoy the elective franchise under the old Constitution. So that it re~ults in this: either the Supreme Court or the Convention must be wrong. I join with the opinion expressed by the Convention, and abundantly sustained by the Constitution itself. The very vote that created that Convention was, in part, a vote of the colored population; and to say, therefore, that their constituents had no right to vote, was ''irtually to determine that they had no right to their places. And admitting that right to vote, the introduction of the word white, by which that right was restricted, was taking from the colored citizens a privilege that was conferred upon them fifty years ago. If this is to be considered as an evidence of our improvement in intelligence, morality, or humanity, and of the extension of freedom in a state that was the Jirst to abolish slavery, why then, I say, that we have fallen upon evil times ; and the sooner we return to the character and practices of our forefathers, the better for us, and for all who depend upon us. This I hold to be a sacrifice to the prejudices and clamors of the South. It cau be attributable to no other probable cause. They arrest our c.itizens-cousign them to prison-deprive them of liberty-destroy their llves,-and in requital for all this, to show how well we have learned our scriptural lessons, and in order to return good for evil, we retrace the steps wh~ch fifty years have sanctioned, and dilapidate the temple of liberty wh1ch our ancestors have anxiously and laboriously erected. Some of the members engaged in the discussio"n of this important sub· ject, seem to think that the negroes, as they termed them, never were designed to be placed upon a level with the whites, being of an inferior speci~s-of an inferior order of intellect. Upon what level, may I be permuted to ask, would those honorable gentlemen be placed, were their position regulated strictly by the intellectual scale. This is severe doctrine, even when applied to men who enjoy equal opportunities for improvement. Uut how cruel and unjust is it, when directed against those unhappy beings, who are by law excluded from the benefits of instruction, and then genero~ lsly taun~ed with ignorance and inferiority. Intellectual inferiority, if it ex1sted, wh1ch, so far as regards capacity, I deny, is no justification of slavery. \Vh~n it shall become so, let him who advocates such principles look well to h1s freedom, for it will certainly be in jeopardy. 'l'o say no more of intellect. I have known instances of moral firmness and decision of character among this proscribed race, that many of the honorable gentlemen who thus contemn them, would blench and blanch in the mere contemplation of. Those of us who are closely approaching the meridian of li fe, must re· collect perfectly a mmder commiued in this city about thirty years agothe murder of Sarah Cross, an old lady who lived in J~etitia Uourt. The malefactors were two colored men, John .Toyre and Peter IVT.:l.thi:ls, the latter |