h State. The
language of the Constitution is, "The citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several
States." If each State may make such persons its citizens, they
become, as such, entitled to the benefits of this article, if there be
a native-born citizenship of the United States distinct from a
native-born citizenship of the several States.

There is one view of this article entitled to consideration in this
connection. It is manifestly copied from the fourth of the Articles of
Confederation, with only slight changes of phraseology, which render
its meaning more precise, and dropping the clause which excluded
paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice, probably because these
cases could be dealt with under the police powers of the States, and a
special provision therefor was not necessary. It has been suggested,
that in adopting it into the Constitution, the words "free
inhabitants" were changed for the word "citizens." An examination of
the forms of expression commonly used in the State papers of that day,
and an attention to the substance of this article of the
Confederation, will show that the words "free inhabitants," as then
used, were synonymous with citizens. When the Articles of
Confederation were adopted, we were in the midst of the war of the
Revolution, and there were very few persons then embraced in the words
"free inhabitants," who were not born on our soil. It was not a time
when many, save the children of the soil, were willing to embark
their fortunes in our cause; and though there might be an inaccuracy
in the uses of words to call free inhabitants citizens, it was then a
technical rather than a substantial difference. If we look into the
Constitutions and State papers of that period, we find the inhabitants
or people of these colonies, or the inhabitants of this State, or
Commonwealth, employed to designate those whom we should now
denominate citizens. The substance and purpose of the article prove it
was in this sense it used these words: it secures to the free
inhabitants of each State the privileges and immunities of free
citizens in every State. It is not conceivable that the States should
have agreed to extend the privileges of citizenship to persons not
entitled to enjoy the privileges of citizens in the States where they
dwelt; that under this article there was a class of persons in some of
the States, not citizens, to whom were secured