he happened to live. His rights, did I say? No, sir, I use
inappropriate language. He had no rights; he was an animal; he was
property, a chattel. The Almighty, according to the ideas of the
times, had made him to be property, a Chattel, and not a man.

"Now, sir, it is not denied that this relation of servitude between
the former negro slave and his master was actually severed by this
amendment. But the absurd construction now forced upon it leaves him
without family, without property, without the implements of husbandry,
and even without the right to acquire or use any instrumentalities of
carrying on the industry of which he may be capable; it leaves him
without friend or support, and even without the clothes to cover his
nakedness. He is a waif upon the current of time; he has nothing that
belongs to him on the face of the earth, except solely his naked
person. And here, in this State, we are called upon to abandon the
poor creature whom we have emancipated. We are coolly told that he has
no right beyond this, and we are told that under this amendment the
power of the State within whose limits he happens to be is not at all
restrained in respect to him, and that the State, through its
Legislature, may at any time declare him to be a vagrant, and as such
commit him to jail, or assign him to uncompensated service."

Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, made a speech, in which he expressed himself
as in favor of conferring citizenship upon the negro, and yet unable
to vote for this bill from the opinion he entertained on "the question
of power." He referred to the Dred Scott and other decisions, and
showed their bearing upon the legislation now proposed. He said: "I
have been exceedingly anxious individually that there should be some
definition which will rid this class of our people from that
objection. If the Supreme Court decision is a binding one, and will be
followed in the future, this law which we are now about to pass will
be held, of course, to be of no avail, as far as it professes to
define what citizenship is, because it gives the rights of citizenship
to all persons without distinction of color, and, of course, embraces
Africans or descendants of Africans."

He referred to a precedent when Congress had conferred the rights of
citizenship: "The citizens of Texas, who, of course, were aliens, it
has never been doubted became citizens of the United States by the
annexation of Texas; and that was not done by treaty, i