a State should
oppose its views, however arbitrary and unconstitutional, and refuse
submission to them, the general government may declare it to be an act
of rebellion, and, suspending the habeas corpus act, may seize upon
the persons of those advocates of freedom, who have had virtue and
resolution enough to excite the opposition, and may imprison them
during its pleasure in the remotest part of the Union; so that a
citizen of Georgia might be _bastiled_ in the furthest part of New
Hampshire; or a citizen of New Hampshire in the furthest extreme of
the South, cut off from their family, their friends, and their every
connexion. These considerations induced me, sir, to give my negative
also to this clause.

EXTRACTS FROM DEBATES IN THE SEVERAL STATE CONVENTIONS ON THE ADOPTION
OF THE UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION.

* * * * *

MASSACHUSETTS CONVENTION.

The third paragraph of the 2d section being read,

Mr. KING rose to explain it. There has, says he, been much
misconception of this section. It is a principle of this Constitution,
that representation and taxation should go hand in hand. This
paragraph states, that the number of free persons shall be determined,
by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound
to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed,
three-fifths of all other persons. These persons are the slaves. By
this rule is representation and taxation to be apportioned. And it was
adopted, because it was the language of all America.

Mr. WIDGERY asked, if a boy of six years of age was to be considered
as a free person?

Mr. KING in answer said, all persons born free were to be considered
as freemen; and to make the idea of _taxation by numbers_ more
intelligible, said that five negro children of South Carolina, are to
pay as much tax as the three Governors of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Mr. GORHAM thought the proposed section much in favor of
Massachusetts; and if it operated against any State, it was
Pennsylvania, because they have more white persons _bound_ than any
other.

Judge DANA, in reply to the remark of some gentlemen, that the
southern States were favored in this mode of apportionment, by having
five of their negroes set against three persons in the eastern, the
honorable judge observed, that the negroes of the southern States work
no longer than when the eye of the driver is on them. Can, asked he,
that