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Show 402 TllE DRED SCOT'l1 CASE. subject of the ordinance, how much more unfounded must be the pretensions of such £L power as derived from that source, (viz., the ordinance of 17 87,) with respect to territory acquired by purchase or conquest under the supreme authority of the Constitution-territory not the subject of me1·e donation, but obtained in the name of all, by the combi11ed ('ifor·ls and re. 01~rccs of all, and with no condition annexed or pretended. Synopsis of the case of IIobbs and other·s, against Fogg, in the Sup1·eme Cou1·t of Pennsylvania, in 1837, (6 Watt~ 553.) The plaintiff below, Fogg, was a colored man, or mulatto, and offered his vote at a general election in 1he township of Greenfield, Luzerne county, which was refu:ed by the Board of Election. lie· then bronght his action to recover damages against the Board, aud "to main tain his rights as a citizen and freeman of the State." 'rhc case aro o under the old Con Litution, ' which declared that 11 every freeman, of the full no-e of twenty-one years," &c., "shall enjoy the rights of an elector." Tile pre ent Constitution prefixes the word white to the word fr·C'eman. The facts of the case were admitted, and the court below direcled judgment for the plaintiff. In the Supreme Court, the case \vas argued by IIon. John N. ConynglJam and lion. IT. B. Wright, for plainlifl's in error; and by llon. Luther Kidder anti-- Greenoucrh, for defendant in error. The opinion of the Court was dclivcrc< 1 by Chief Justice Gibson, from whi ch we make the following extract. It will be seen that it takes the Rnme ground, as to the citizenship of lhe negro, as does the Drcd Scott case. Gibson C. J. * * * * Bnt in addiLion to in terpretation from nsa.ge, this antecedent legislatiou furnishes other proofs that no colored race was party to our social TilE DRED :SLOTT C\ E. 4 3 compact. A was jnstly remarked by rre ident F ox, in the matter of tile late cunt ..,:- ted election, our nnce~tor~ ettiL·d the prorince a a community of white men, whence un unconquerable prejudice of ca -te, which hn come down to our dn.v ' in omuch that a su, picion of tiut ~till hn the unju t efl'ect of inking the uhju:t of it belo\Y the common ler ,1. Con i ~tcntly with thi · pn-,judice. i' it to be credited that pari ty of rank would be allow d to uch u race? Let the que lion be unswere by the tntutc of l i2 G, wh ich denominated it an idle antl a ~Jothfu l people ; which directed the mn.gdra. te to bind out free nc~roe~ for lazine ~ or -,acrm11cy ; which forbade them to burl or I ndian or mulatto lu-,c~, on pain of tripe ; wbicb annexLd to the interdict with a marriage with 'vhite, the penalty of reduction to lurery; which pnni:hed them for tippling-, with tripe~ · and eren a whit per on wi th ~cn·itude for iut r·murriage wi th a negro. If freemen, inn poli ical sense, were uhjecb of those •n1 I nrill degrading oppre, :::ion ·,w-hat mu~t bnve been th lot of their brethren in bon aCYC ? I r i ul~o true, that dcCYrading po-. itions were sometime~ ac;sig-ned to white men, but ne,er u member ~ of a cn-. te. I n:-olrent debtor , to indica e the wor't of them, were compelled to make suti,faction by ~e rvitudc; but that wu ~ borrowed from fl. kind reel and - ill le,- rational princi ple of the common law. Thi- act of 1126, ho\'li·erer, remai ned in force until it was repealctl by the emancipating act of 1780 · and it i- irrational to belic-re that the progreof liberal entiment~ wa o rapitl in the next ten years, ato prod uce a determination in the onrention of 1 i D , to rai ~e thi d pre -ed race to the leYel of the w-hite one. If such were it"' purpo e) it i- ~trange that the word cho,en o effect it hould ha'\e een he ' erv. one cho-en b.' the on-ventioo of I i 'i 6, to designate a white elector. u En~ry freeman,'' it j., aid, chap. ii ec. 6, "of the full arre of twenty-one y ·ar before the day of election, and hating paid taxes duri ng that time, shall enjoy the rights of an elector. ' |
