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 consequence, that this fourth 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 fourth 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 fourth 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 the amendment, eight States
against it, and the vote of one State was divided. The language of the
article stood unchanged, and both by 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.

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 by 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 adopti