"Sec. 42. Every foreigner, of good character, who comes to settle in this State, having first taken an oath or affirmation of allegiance to the same, may purchase, or by other just means acquire, hold and transfer land or other real estate; and after one year's residence, shall be deemed a FREE denizen thereof, and entitled to all the rights of a natural born subject of this state, except that he shall not be capable of being elected a representative until after two year's residence."
The constitution of New York, (adopted in 1777,) uses the word in the same manner:
"Sec. 6. That every male inhabitant of full age, who has personally resided in one of the counties of this state for six months, immediately preceding the day of election, shall at such election be entitled to vote for representatives of the said county in assembly, if during the time aforesaid he shall have been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to the State. Provided always, That every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York, on or before the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and usually resident in the said cities respectively, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his place of residence."
The constitution of South Carolina, (formed in 1778,) uses the word "free" in a sense which may, at first thought, be supposed to be different from that in which it is used in the preceding cases:
Sec. 13. The qualification of electors shall be that "every free white man, and no other person," &c., "shall be deemed a person qualified to vote for, and shall be capable of being elected a representative."
It may be supposed that here the word "free" is used as the correlative of slavery; that it presumes the "whites" to be "free;" and that it therefore implies that other persons than "white" may be slaves. Not so. No other parts of the constitution authorize such an inference; and the implication from the words themselves clearly is, that some "white" persons might not be "free." The distinction implied is between those "white" persons that were "free," and those that were not "free." If this were not the distinction intended, and if all "white" persons were "free," it would have been sufficient to have designated the electors simply as "white" persons, instead of designating them as both "free" and "white." If therefore it were admitted that the word "free," in this instance, were used as the correlative of slaves, the implication would be that some "white" persons were, or might be slaves. There is therefore no alternative but to give to the word "free," in this instance, the same meaning that it has in the constitutions of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
In 1704 South Carolina passed an act entitled, "An act for making aliens FREE of this part of the Province."—This statute remained in force until 1784, when it was repealed by an act entitled "An act to confer the right of citizenship on aliens"[17]
One more example of this use of the word "freeman." The constitution of Connecticut, adopted as late as 1818, has this provision:
"Art. 6. Sec. 1. All persons who have been, or shall hereafter, previous to the ratification of this constitution, be admitted freemen, according to the existing laws of this State, shall be electors."
Surely no other proof can be necessary of the meaning of the words "free" and "freeman," as used in the constitutions existing in 1789; or that the use of those words furnish no implication in support of either the 'existence', or the constitutionality of slavery, prior to the adoption of the constitution of the United States in that year.