year next preceding the election, and who have paid or are
charged with a State or county tax, shall enjoy the right of an
elector," etc.[42] This was repeated in the Bill of Rights adopted in
1851.[43]

Article iv., Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States says:
"The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several States." The question as to
whether free Negroes were included in the above was discussed at great
length in the Dred Scott case, where Chief-Justice Taney took the
ground that a Negro was not a citizen under the fourth article of the
Constitution. But the fourth article of the Articles of Confederation
[1778] recognized free Negroes as citizens. It is given here:

"ART. 4.--The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship
and intercourse among the people of the different States in this
Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States--paupers,
vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted--shall be entitled
to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several
States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and
regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all
the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties,
impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof,
respectively; provided that such restrictions shall not extend so
far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any
State, from any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant;
provided, also, that no imposition, duty, or restriction shall be
laid by any State on the property of the United States, or either
of them."[44]

By this it is evident that "paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from
justice" were the only persons excluded from the right of citizenship.
The following is the history of the Dred Scott case:

"In the year 1834, the plaintiff was a negro slave belonging to
Dr. Emerson, who was a surgeon in the army of the United States.
In that year, 1834, said Dr. Emerson took the plaintiff from the
State of Missouri to the military post at Rock Island, in the
State of Illinois, and held him there as a slave until the month
of April or May, 1836. At the time last mentioned, said Dr.
Emerson removed the plaintiff from said military post at Rock
Island to the military post at Fort Snelling