she come under the banner and folds of the
Constitution.
And further, that "the people of the United
States" does not mean people of the United
States, as a single political community. See
article 1. section 2, clause 2, of the constitu-
tion, defining the qualifications of members
of Congress.
"No person shall be a representative who
shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five
years, and been seven years a citizen of
the United States, and who shall not, when
elected, he an inhabitant of the State in which
he shall be chosen."
Now under the first election held under the
Constitution, if "citizen of the United States "
meant a citizen of the United States as a whole,
and nut a citizen of one of the several States,
no man could have been a member of Congress.
because the United States had not been
formed for seven years, and no man could
have been for seven years a citizen of the
United States.
Mr. STIRLING. If the gentleman will per-
mit, I will interpolate a single remark here.
If that construction is true, if a citizen of a
State means a citizen of the United States,
what then becomes of the doctrine which the
State's rights party has always maintained,
that a citizen of Massachusetts was not necessarily
a citizen of the United States? And if
his doctrine does not carry with it the doctrine
that a black man, a citizen of Massa-
chusets, is a citizen of the United States?
Mr. CLARKE. I will answer the gentleman
in this way—
Mr. STIRLING. I do not deny that it is so.
Mr. CLARKES. I deny it; and I am only responsible
for the doctrine I assert. In my
opinion, the Constitution when it was formed,
was formed for white men, and the history of
every step in the formation of the Constitution,
shows that it was only meant for white men.
And any white man who is a citizen of any
of the States, is eligible to a seat in Congress ;
and when you go a step farther and announce
adoctrine in contravention of the Dred Scott
decision, which has declared, from the portals
of the Supreme Court of the United States,
that a black man is not a citizen of the United
States, this is my answer: Black men are not
citizens of the United States, and are not
eligible to Congress, whether they are citizens
of Massachusetts, Maryland or any other
State, But any white man, for whom this
Constitution was solely formed, who is a
citizen of one of the several States, is eligible
to a seat in Congress. But the gentleman, I
suppose, does not submit to the Dred Scott
decision.
Mr. STIRLING. I do not agree with it.
Mr. CLARKE, You do not submit to it.
Mr. STIRLING. I submit, but do not agree
to it.
Mr. CLARKE. To return to my argument.
The last article of the Constitution shows that |
it was to be a Constitution only between the
States ratifying the same. if gentlemen will
turn to first of Elliott's Debates, page 319,
they will there find that the several ratifica-
tions were made in this form: " We, the depu-
ties of the people of the State of Delaware ;"
" We, the delegates of the people of Pennsylvania;
and so on throughout, each ratifying
it as the people of a sovereign State. A friend
near me suggests the question, whether in the
formation of this Constitution, and its accepts
ance by the people of the several States, its
acceptance by the people of Pennsylvania
contributed one tittle to make that Constitu-
tion the form of government over the people
of Maryland; or whether it was not made the
law of Maryland, so as to bring the people of
the State of Maryland under that government,
simply, solely and purely by the action of the
people of the State of Maryland, acting as a
State, and independent of all other States and
all other peoples. The latter, of course, is the
true answer.
Now it so happened that when studying the
Constitution at the Harvard Law School, we
had Story as a text book, which announces
doctrines in opposition to those which I am
endeavoring to establish. Judge Story had
then passed away, and had been succeeded,
as Dane Professor of Harvard University, by
Hon. Joel Parker, who for many years adorned
the bench of New Hampshire as its chief justice.
in the course of his lectures upon the
subject several questions, embracing the doc-
trines I have announced were put to him by
me and other young men from the South, of
whom I am happy to say, a large number
were then in attendance. We asked him to
review the doctrines of Judge Story. He re-
spectfully informed us that he would take the
subject under consideration, and would de-
livered lecture upon it at the next meeting.
He came in—this Dane Professor of Har-
vard University, who bad succeeded Judge
Story, said that Judge Story had, I will
not say, misrepresented facts, but had an-
nounced doctrines which could not be main-
tained. And Judge Parker announced to me,
as a student of law, and all the southern gen-
tlemen with me, and to the northern gentle-
men also, that the Constitution was formed
by the people of the several States.
Now I go a step further, and say that it
was formed by compact between the States ;
and in support of this I refer to the democratic,
the immortal and true old Jeffersonian doe-
trine, which I hope will never be surrendered
as long as there is a main left in this State to
fight tor true democracy. I do not mean war
democracy; but true old Jeffersonian demo-
cracy, the genuine democracy announced in
the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions to be
found in 4 Elliott's Debates, pages 528 and
540, as follows:
"Resolved, That this Assembly doth ex-
plicitly and peremptorily declare that it views |
