Mr. DORAN, of Philadelphia county, rose and addressed the chair. [The remarks of Mr. DORAN not having been returned in time for insertion in their proper place, they will be given in the APPENDIX.]

Mr. EARLE moved an adjounment. Lost.

Mr. EARLE then said, that on a former occasion, he had refered to the opinions of some eminent men, who were united by one common principle, whose opinions he thought calculated to have some influence on the people of this commonwealth. He now proposed to read some further extracts of the opinions of great men, from a work which had a circle on its title page, of thirteen stars, surrounding the word "liberty," together with the state house bell in this city, which rung at the proclamation of independence, and whose motto was "to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof."

The question now was, upon the insertion of the word "white" in the constitution, which he was opposed to, and being opposed to it, and wishing to bring to the notice of the convention many authorities, he would proceed at once to his notes, for he could not, at this time of night, commence to read extracts from a book. He wished to show that there were many eminent men, who held doctrines entirely at variance with those of some gentlemen on this floor. He wished to show, that there were many who were distinguished for their love of liberty, and their adherence to the rights of man, who held doctrines directly the reverse of the doctrines promulgated by this amendment.

He would refer to Simon Bolivar, the liberator, and in doing so, he would take occasion to point gentlemen to the high compliment paid this great man, by one of our presidents, in his annual message. Well, this gentleman in one of his speeches while president, said he begged of his people, for the sake of their country, that they would never make any distinctions on account of colours, because the principles of liberty were held as sacred by one class as by the other,

Mungo Park says, in relation to these people:

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"I was fully convinced, that whatever difference there is between the negro and the European, in the conformation of the nose and the colour of the skin, there is none in the genuine sympathies of our nature.”

Mr. Addison, says: what colour of excuse can there be for the contempt with which the whites treat these people-the negroes.

Mr. E. here gave way to

Mr. DICKEY, who said that he was desirous of addressing the convention, if the previous question could not be carried, and with a view of having an opportunity, he moved an adjournment. Lost.

Mr. EARLE resumed: John Randolph said:

"I neither envy the head nor the heart of that man from the north, who rises to defend slavery on principle."

Thomas Jefferson Randolph, says of the individuals of the African

race:

"No matter what the grandeur of his soul, the elevation of his thought; he may be a Newton or a Des Cartes, a Tell or a Washington, he is chained down by adamantine fetters; he cannot rear himself from the earth, without elevating his whole race with him."

Robert Burns, who was a man with a great soul, says:

"If I'm designed yon lordling's slave

By natures law design'd,
Why was an independent wish

E'er planted in my mind?

If not, why am I subject to,
His cruelty or scorn;

Or why has man the will and pow'r,
To make his fellow mourn?
Then let us pray, that come it may,

As come it shall for a' that,

That sense and worth, o'er all the earth,
Shall bear the gree, and a' that,

For a' that an' a' that,

When man to man, the world all o'er,
Shall brothers be, an' a' that."

Thomas Jefferson, the great apostle of liberty, says:

"What an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow man a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.

"But, we must wait with patience the workings of an over-ruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of those OUR SUFFERING BRETHREN. When the measure of their tears shall be fullwhen their tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness-doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing a light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality."-Notes on Virginia.

"The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people; and, it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain."

"Nursed and educated, in the daily habits of seeing the degraded condition both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate beings, but not reflecting that that degradation was very much the work of themselves and their fathers, few minds have yet doubted but that they were as legitimate subjects of property as their horses or cattle."

"I had always hoped that the younger generation, receiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every breast, and had become, as it were, the vital spirit of every American, in the generous temperament of youth, analogous to the motion of their blood, and above the suggestions of avarice, would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own share of it."

"This measure is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to its consummation. It shall have all my prayers; and these are the only weapons of an old man. It is an encouraging observation, that no good measure was ever proposed, which, if duly pursued,

failed to prevail in the end." Mr. Jefferson's letter to Gov. Coles. August 25, 1814.

Mr. E. here gave way to

Mr. DORAN, on whose motion,

The convention adjourned.

1

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1838.

Mr. FOULKROD, of Philadelphia, presented a memorial from citizens of Philadelphia county, praying that measures may be taken effectually to prevent all amalgamation between the white and coloured population, so far as regards the government of this state; which was laid on the table.

Mr. COATES, of Lancaster, presented a memorial from citizens of this commonwealth, praying that the right of trial by jury may be extended to every human being; which was also laid on the table.

Mr. BEDFORD, of Luzerne, submitted the following resolution, which was laid on the table for future consideration, viz:

"That when

Resolved, That the following rule be adopted in convention, viz: any thirty delegates rise in their places and move the question on any pending amendment, it shall be the duty of the presiding officer to take the vote of the body on sus taining such call: and if such call shall be sustained by a majority, the question shall be taken on such amendment without further debate.

Mr. COPE, of Philadelphia, moved that the convention do now proceed to the second reading and consideration of the following resolution, postponed on the 17th instant, viz:

Resolved, That the President draw his warrant on the state treasurer, in favor of Joseph Black, late sergeant-at-arms of the senate, for the sum of two hundred and eighty-two dollars and fifty cents, in full for one hundred and thirteen days' services in the senate chamber, during the sessions of the convention at Harrisburg.

The motion being agreed to, the resolution was considered and adopted.

THIRD ARTICLE.

The convention resumed the second reading of the report of the committee to whom was referred the third article of the constitution, as repor ted by the committee of the whole.

The question being on the motion of Mr. MARTIN, of Philadelphia county, further to amend the first section of the said article, by inserting the word "white," before the word "freemen," where it occurs in the first line, and also by inserting the word "white," before the word "freeman," where it occurs in the seventh line of the said section.

Mr. EARLE, of Philadelphia county, resumed his remarks. It had been alleged, on account of the supposed inferiority of all persons having a dark complexion, that they ought to be excluded from the exercise of those rights, which are asserted in the declaration of independence, to belong to all mankind, and which nearly all the constitutions of the several states of this Union, had declared to be natural rights. Some learned men have asserted that the negro is the connecting link between the human and the brute races. He desired to make a few observations on this point. There was a broad line of demarcation between the human and brute races; while there was no essential difference between the different branches of the human species. The difference was immense between the lowest of the human race, and the highest of the brute species. Milton describes man as the only creature on all the earth that walks erect with upright port. This is true. There is no other animal that naturally assumes the upright position. It is true, you may make an ape walk on two feet, and also a dog, and you may make man walk on four, but this is a violation of the intention and custom of nature.

Man is distinguished by his sense of the ludicrous. He is a laughing animal, and, in this respect, there is no other animal which resembles him. Man prepares a dress for his body, when his necessities require it; and no brute does this. Man is capable of forming language, of combining sounds into words, and communicating his ideas by those words; properties which belong to no brute. It is true, certain animals convey limited information to each other by instinctive sounds; but human language is artificial and not instinctive. Man can erect habitations with endless variety of form and structure. The squirrel and the birds form nests, but they do it from instinct. The young bird, without any instruction from the parent, builds its nest in the same form, but there is here an absence of all invention. All progress in the arts is peculiar to man alone.

The beaver builds a dam in the same manner in which his ancestors did a thousand years ago. Man makes improvements in the arts, and hands those improvements down to his posterity. He prepares tools, he tills the soil, he builds fires, he cooks his food, he studies medicine, astronomy, and physical laws, he plays at games of skill and of chanee, he constructs instruments for music, he forms poetry and fictions, enters into contracts, &c. &c. These peculiarities create a broad line of demarcation between the human species and the most intelligent brutes. Yet no such line can be drawn between men of different nations and complexions. There are a hundred strong and obvious distinctions between the human and brute animal; but not a single intellectual feature, creating a distinction between human beings of different colours, and existing as a uniform line of demarcation.

How are we to apply a test? Shall it be by some intellectual exercise, as strength of body is exhibited by lifting a weight? Is there any capability of intellectual exercise which one complexion posesses, and no one else? Perhaps some game would furnish as good a test of intellectual power as could be obtained, perhaps the game of chess. Can no coloured man beat a white man at chess? When our ancestors were barbarians, painted and clothed in skins, the Africans were working iron in as great perfection as any people in the world. The narrow prejudice which has

assigned to the coloured man an irremovable inferiority, is gradually melting away. It is already banished from Europe, and from all the countries of America, south of Texas. A coloured man, in France, is treated as well as any other man.

A gentleman of this city, recently informed him, that he saw white soldiers in Paris, commanded by a black captain; and that he saw black officers dance at the same ball with members of the imperial family. Gentlemen go back to the times of yore, and tell us that the coloured people were cruelly oppressed some hundred years ago; and shall we be told, that because our ancestors were barbarous and cruel in former times, that we shall be so now? If this doctrine be a sound one, we ought to go back to monarchy, and to the despotism of the dark ages; we should become slaves ourselves, because our white ancestors were once so in England. We have been told that we are under great obligations to the United States, and to the sister states, and that we, in Pennsylvania, should regulate this matter by their wishes, and that our constitution was made for the white citizens, and that it would be a fraud on the other states to admit coloured people to the right of suffrage. Is this so? What southern man ever objected to the suffrage of negroes in the northern states? None, so far as my knowledge extends. Yet we have heard these northern states, which permit coloured people to vote, charged on this floor, with fraud. This charge is unfounded. It arises from an insufficient examination of the subject. It is made by men who are biased by prdjudices, and who do not correctly understand the consti tution of the United States in its details, or the obligations which arise under it.

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Mr. CUMMIN rose to explain. He had read from the constitution of the United States often, his quotation concerning servitude, the clause about three-fifths of all others,' which, he inferred, meant persons of colour. He had said no more than, that this was a compact between the several states, and that all were bound to acquiesce in it, and that Dr. Franklin was a member of the convention by which that compact was entered into.

Mr. EARLE resumed. The gentleman from Juniata represented the constitution of the United States, as basing representation in proportion to all the free white male citizens, and three-fifths of the blacks: but there is no such thing in the constitution. And thus the gentleman comes to tell us what the constitution means, when he himself does not even know what it says. There was neither the word "white," or "black,” in that instrument, from the beginning to the end. If it had been intended that there should be exclusion, would not the word "black," or "slave," been found somewhere. The people of the United States, at the time of forming the national constitution, were determined to extirpate these distinctions, and establish the principle, that freedom and equality are the unalienable rights of all. Each state was left to prescribe for itself, who should be voters in the choice of her representatives in congress. If the United States constitution intended that no coloured man should vote for a member of congress, it would have inserted the word "white," in the list of qualifications. If the framers of the constitution intended what gentlemen say they did, then they were deficient in sagacity in not making the language more explicit. The constitution of the Uni