OCR Text |
Show 39G the ~amc statute passed in 177 4, which prohibilc<l the further itnporlatiou ofslnve1::> into the ~lat·, there il:l u.l~o n. provi ;-;iou by which any neg ro, Jndi:w, or llllllatto sc·t·vattl, who was f'ouud wanderi t,g out of tile town or place to wl1il'h he Lelo ngt'd, without a wriLlcn p ; ts~ l-lttch ttl':l LlJ t' r L'itl d('st'riiJt'd w~1H 111ade liable to be sciz;cd by auy ouc, and taken before' the next authority, to lJc examin ed and delivered up to his master, wlw was required to pay lhc chu.rgc which ho.cl accrued thereby. And a subsequent section of the snme lu.w provided, thai if any free negro shall travel without such pass, and shall be stopped, seiz;cd, or taken np, he shall pay all charges ari1:>itw thereby. And this law wns in full operation when the Constitution of the United tales was adopted, anu wus not repealed till 17 n7. So that up to that time free ucgrocs and mulatt oes were associated with servants and ~l:wes in the police regulations cstauli ·!Jed by the laws of the State. And again, in 1833, Connecticut passed ano ther law which malic it penal to set up or establish any sch ool iu that Slate for tho in truction of persons of the Africaa race, not inhabitants of the State, or to iusLru<.:t or teaeh in any such school or institution, or board or harbor for that purpose, any snch person, without the previous consent iu writing of the civil authority of tho town in which suoh school or iustitutio11 might be. And it appears by the case of Crandc1l v. tho State, reported in 10 Conn. H.cp., 340, that upon an inf'onualion filed against Prndencc Crandell for a Yiolation of this law, one of the points raised in the dcf'n se wns, that the ln.w was a violation of the Cou Litutiou of the Unit ed StatC's ; and that the persons instructed, although of the African race, were citizens of other Stales, anu th erefore entitled to tho rights and privileges of citizens in the SLate of Connecticut. But Chief J ustico Daggct, before whom the case was tried, held, that persons of that description were not citizens of a THE DRED SCO'rrr CAS I~. 397 State within the meaning of the word citizen in ihe C o ~ sti- tuti.O n or 1,1 I e Uni ted Stat e ' . :t.l l(l were. n. ot t lt.c rcfore oni1 tled to t I1 e pn·v 1']cges and intmutnti ·s of cttihcns m other SLates. Wo extrnci the foll owing from the opinion of Judge DaniclH in the same e:tse : . . . . Tile power of Congre ·s lo i11q>0:e the p rohilJitiOn Ill the eighth section of' the aet of 1820, lws lJcen nd voc.ated np_on an altern pled ('OitSLruction of the second el a use of th~ tlunl section of the fourth artielc of Lhc Co n sLilt~ti o n, wh1 ch declares thai "CongTcRR shall ha. ve power to d Isp.ose of n.nd t? ma Ic c, all ueedful rules and r g ul ationH respeel 1.n g th1e lf'?TL, - tory aud otlH'r JJr or)(' rly bdonging to th Untleu ~ tn.t~s, In the diHcussion in both hou. es of Congress, nt the t1111e of adopting the eighth .·ceii on of the net of 1H.20, great wcighL was given to the peculiar l:w g ua~e of th1s cia ~. ,e, viz. tetTi lory ancl otlwr pru1wrly Ul'{onywr; to the Ullllcd Sta~es, us going to show th at power of di~posi~tg of and rcgu Iatinoo· ' thereLy vc. 'icu in Congre.'s, was restnctcd t·o da mriela1'1' i n/('?'e!iil in the l<~?'rilo?'y of land eompnsc pro.t' ·' r . l therein, and did noL extend to the personal or po. tl lca rights of citizens or settl ers, ina.smueh as ll t i~ phrase 111 the Constitution, "te1Tilor-y o1· vtlu•?' p rope1·!y," it1entifi 'd lcrritO? ·y with [WVJ)(!rl!J, 0,11(1 inaslllll ('h Us citizens 01' TWnWI1S could not ue property, and especially were not p mpc~'Ly .belonging to the United Stutes. An(l upon every pnnctplc of reason or nceessit.y, this power to dispose of anu to regulate the terri lo?'y of Lhc uation could be designed to ex lend no further io its preservat ion ancl appropriati on to the nses of those to whom it belonged, vir.., the nation. Scare Iy anything more illogical or extravagant c.a~t b~ imagined than the attempt to deduce from this provt: Ion I~ the. Constitution a power to de. Lroy or in any wiHe to .nn pal t' tho civil and political rights of the citizens of ih~ Un~ led Stt~t?s, nnd much more so the power to establish meqnaliLtcs |