stance, the same meaning that it has in the
constitutions of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

In 1704 South Carolina passed an act entitled, "_An act for making
aliens FREE of this part of the Province._"--This statute remained in
force until 1784, when it was repealed by an act entitled "_An act to
confer the right of citizenship on aliens_"[17]

One more example of this use of the word "_freeman_." The constitution
of Connecticut, adopted as late as 1818, has this provision:

"Art. 6. Sec. 1. All persons who have been, or _shall hereafter_,
previous to the ratification of this constitution, _be admitted
freemen_, according to the existing laws of this State, shall be
electors."

Surely no other proof can be necessary of the meaning of the words
"free" and "freeman," as used in the constitutions existing in 1789; or
that the use of those words furnish no implication in support of either
the 'existence', or the constitutionality of slavery, prior to the
adoption of the constitution of the United States in that year.

I have found, in _none_ of the State constitutions before mentioned,
(existing in 1789,) any other evidence or intimation of the existence of
slavery, than that already commented upon and refuted. And if there be
no other, then it is clear that slavery had no legal existence under
them. And there was consequently no _constitutional_ slavery in the
country up to the adoption of the constitution of the United States.

[Footnote 14: The State Constitutions of 1789 were adopted as follows:
Georgia, 1777; South Carolina, 1778; North Carolina, 1776; Virginia,
1776; Maryland, 1776; Delaware, 1776; Pennsylvania, 1776; New Jersey,
1776; New York, 1777; Massachusetts, 1780; New Hampshire, 1783.

These early Constitutions ought to be collected and published with
appropriate notes.]

[Footnote 15: Since that time the words "free" and "freemen" have been
gradually falling into disuse, and the word citizen been
substituted--doubtless for the reason that it is not pleasant to our
pride or our humanity to use words, one of whose significations serves
to suggest a contrast between ourselves and slaves.]

[Footnote 16: Dallas's edition of the Laws of Pennsylvania, vol. 1,
Appendix, page 25.]

[Footnote 17: Cooper's edition of the Laws of South Carolina, vols. 2
and 4. "Aliens,"]

CHAPTER VII.

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.

The Articles of Confederation, (formed in 1778,) contai