a freeman,' and
promising obedience to the proprietary, as well as allegiance to the
crown, `shall be held and reputed freemen of the province and counties
aforesaid;' and it was further declared, that when a foreigner `shall
make his request to the governor of the province _for the aforesaid
freedom_, the same person shall be _admitted_ on the conditions herein
expressed, paying twenty shillings sterling, and no more:'--modes of
expression peculiarly appropriate to corporate fellowship. The word in
the same sense pervades the charter of privileges, the act of
settlement, and the act of naturalisation, in the preamble to the last
of which it was said, that some of the inhabitants were `foreigners and
not freemen, according to the acceptation of the laws of England;' it
held its place also in the legislative style of enactment down to the
adoption of the present constitution; after which, the words `by and
with the advice and consent of the freemen,' were left out, and the
present style substituted. Thus, till the instant when the phrase on
which the question turns was penned, the term freeman had a peculiar and
specific sense, being used like the term citizen, which supplanted it,
to denote one who had a voice in public affairs. The citizens were
denominated freemen even in the constitution of 1776; and under the
present constitution, the word, though dropped in the style, was used in
legislative acts, convertible with electors, so late as the year 1798,
when it grew into disuse. In an act passed the 4th of April in that
year for the establishment of certain election districts, it was, for
the first time, used indiscriminately with that word; since when it has
been entirely disused. Now, it will not be pretended, that the
legislature meant to have it inferred, that every one not a freeman
within the purview, should be deemed a slave; and how can a convergent
intent be collected from the same word in the constitution, that every
one not a slave is to be accounted an elector? Except for the word
citizen, which stands in the context also as a term of qualification, an
affirmance of these propositions would extend the right of suffrage to
aliens; and to admit of any exception to the argument, its force being
derived from the supposed universality of the term, would destroy it.
Once concede that there may be a freeman in one sense of it, who is not
so in another, and the whole ground is surrendered. In what sense,
the