disputes, if there can be a dispute concerning this subject, but with those substantial facts evinced
by the written constitutions of States, and by the notorious practice under them. And they show,
in a manner which no argument can obscure, that in some of the original thirteen States, free
colored persons, before and at the time of the formation of the Constitution, were citizens of
those States.

ii. Articles of Confederation

The 4th of the fundamental articles of the Confederation was as follows: "The free
inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted, shall
be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States."

The fact that free persons of color were citizens of some of the several States, and the
consequences, that this 4th Article of the Confederation would have the effect to confer on such
persons the privileges and immunities of general citizenship, were not only known to those who
framed and adopted those articles, but the evidence is decisive, that the 4th Article was intended
to have that effect, and that more restricted language, which would have excluded such persons,
was deliberately and purposely rejected.

On the 25th of June, 1778, the Articles of Confederation being under consideration by the
Congress, the delegates from South Carolina moved to amend this 4th Article, by inserting after
the word "free," and before the word "inhabitants," the word "white," so that the privileges and
immunities of general citizenship would be secured only to white persons. Two States voted for
amendment, eight States against it, and the vote of one State was divided. The language of the
article stood unchanged, and both its terms of inclusion, "free inhabitants," and the strong
implication from its terms of exclusion, "paupers, vagabonds and fugitives from justice," who
alone were excepted, it is clear, that under the Confederation, and at the time of the adoption of
the Constitution, free colored persons of African descent might be, and, by reason of their
citizenship in certain States, were, entitled to the privileges and immunities of general citizenship
of the United States.

iii. The Constitution

Did the Constitution of the United States deprive them or their descendants of
citizenship?

That Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States
through the action, in each State, of those persons who were qualified b its laws to act thereon, in
behalf of themselves and all other citizens of that State. In some of the States, as we have seen
colored persons were among those qualified by law to act on this subject. These colored persons
were not only included in the body of "the people of the United States by whom the Constitution
was ordained and established," but in at least five of the States they had the power to act, and
doubtless did act, by their suffrages, upon the question of its adoption. It would be strange, if we

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