posed of by the Convention; and he had hoped that it would not again be made a question for debate. It was not his intention to revive the discussion of it; and he rose merely to make some reply to the remarks which had fallen from the gentleman from Schoharie, (Mr. Briggs.) He could wish that gentleman had assigned some reasons why persons of colour might not be as intelligent and virtuous as white persons. Had nature interposed any barriers to prevent them from the acquisition of knowledge, or the pursuit of virtue? It was true they were now in some measure a degraded race; but how came they so? Was it not by our fault, and the fault of our fathers? And because they had been degraded, the gentleman from Schoharie was for visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, and for condemning them to eternal degradation. He could not but think there were too many unfounded prejudices; too much pride of democracy on this subject. However we may scorn, and insult, and trample upon this unfortunate race now, the day was fast approaching when we must lie down with them in that narrow bed appointed for all the living. Then, if not before, the pride of distinction would cease. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master. In commingled and undistinguished dust we must all repose, and rise together at the last day. God has created us all equal; and why should we establish distinctions? We are all the offspring of one common Father, and redeemed by one common Saviourthe gates of paradise are open alike to the bond and the free. He hoped the committee would never consent to incorporate into the constitution a provision which contravened the spirit of our institutions, and which was so repulsive to the dictates of justice and Irumanity.

MR. BUEL said it was not correct, as had been suggested on a former day by the honourable gentleman from Saratoga, (Mr. Young,) that no provision for the exclusion of the blacks had been made by the framers of our constitution, because they were then so few and inconsiderable as to have been overlooked by them. It would be found that as long ago as 1730, a special law of this state was enacted to prevent the concealing of slaves. Statutes had been made on the same subject down to the time of the revolution, which evinced that the people of this state were not ignorant of the tendency or extent of the effect and progress of emancipation. In the period of the revolutionary war, a statute had been passed for the encouragement of enlisting blacks into the service, which provided that at the expiration of three years the slave should be entitled to his freedom, and the master to the military bounty.

He had previously suggested the difficulty of discrimination which would arise from such a provision. Philosophers had distinguished the human race by five colours, the white, black, brown, olive, and red. By the amendment, four of the races would be excluded. In the West Indies a man became white according to law, when only one sixteenth part of African blood ran in his veins. These questions might lead to unpleasant elucidations of family history, and ought to be avoided.

COL. YOUNG replied to the observations of Mr. Buel, and admitted that the theory of philosophers might be correct; but he contended that in forming a constitution, reference was to be had, not to speculation, but to the common sense of mankind. That would sufficiently direct, who were to be admitted, and who were to be excluded, by such a general provision.

MR. BRIGGS made three unsuccessful efforts to take the floor.

Messrs. Ross and R. CLARKE addressed the committee on the subject, when MR. BRIGGS replied to the objections that had been raised by the honourable gentleman from Westchester, (Mr. Jay.) That gentleman had remarked that we must all ultimately lie down in the same bed together. But he would ask that honourable gentleman whether he would consent to lie down, in life, in the same feather bed with a negro? But it was said that the right of suffrage would elevate them. He would ask whether it would elevate a monkey or a baboon to allow them to vote? No, it would be to sport, and trifle, and sporlt them, to say they might be candidates for the office of president of the United States. But gentlemen whose opinions he respected, had advised him to withe draw his motion, and therefore he withdrew it.

The question was then taken on the first part of the section, as amended, in the following words:

"Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been one year an inhabitant of this state preceding the day of the election, and for the last six months a resident of the town, county, or district where he may offer his vote, and shall have paid a tax to the state or county within the year next preceding the election, assessed upon his real or personal property; or shall be by law exempted from taxation."

A division having been called for, it was decided by ayes and noes, as follows:

AYES-Messrs. Bacon, Barlow, Beckwith, Birdseye, Bowman, Breese, Briggs, Brinkerhoff, Buel, Burroughs, Carpenter, Carver, Case, Child, D. Clark, R. Clarke, Collins, Cramer, Day, Dodge, Dubois, Duer, Dyckman, Eastwood, Edwards, Fairlie, Fenton, Ferris, Fish, Frost, Hallock, Hees, Hogeboom, Howe, Humphrey, Hunt, Hunter, Hunting, Huntington, Hurd, Jay, Jones, Kent, King, Lansing, Lawrence, Lefferts, A. Livingston, McCall, Moore, Munro, Nelson, Park, Paulding, Pike, Porter, President, Price, Pumpelly, Radcliff, Rhinelander, Richards, Rose, Rosebrugh, Ross, Russell, Sage, N. Sanford, R. Sandford, Schenck, Seaman, Seeley, Sharpe, Sheldon, I. Smith, R. Smith, Spencer, Stagg, Starkweather, Steele, D. Southerland, Swift, Sylvester, Tallmadge, Taylor, Townsend, Tripp, Tuttle, Van Buren, Van Fleet, Van Horne, Van Ness, Van Vechten, Ward, E. Webster, Wendover, Wheaton, Wheeler, E. Williams, Woods, Young-114,

NOES-Messrs. Platt, J. R. Van Rensselaer-2.

The next division of the section relative to the qualification by military ser vice, having been already decided by ayes and noes, was passed over; and the question in order, was on the part of the section expressed in the words following:

"And also, every male citizen of the age of twenty one years, who shall have been, for three years next preceding such election, an inhabitant of this state; and for the last year a resident in the town, county, or district, where he may offer his vote; and shall have been, within the last year, assessed to labour upon the pub. lic highways, and shall have performed the labour, or paid an equivalent therefor, according to law, shall be entitled to vote in the town or ward where he actually resides and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the people."

MR. BACON said that he was opposed, as he had alone been in the select committee, to the qualification now proposed, on general principles, and as he had also been to that founded on militia service. The latter had, however just been adopted by a large majority; and after admitting all who could be admit ted under that qualification, as it would undoubtedly be executed in practice, he could see little else left that was worth a serious struggle for, since the present proposition would only admit a few more who were over the age of fortyfive, and consequently not enrolled in the militia; and they would probably be as good voters, as those who were under that age. We had, also, by adopting the militia qualification, given to the city of New-York an additional disposable force of many hundred electoral votes, and it might be well to over balance this weight, by this highway qualification, which will not add any thing to the city list, while it may give us some small addition in those parts of the country where the militia qualification may be strictly executed." While the latter, therefore, is retained, we should vote for the former as connected with it,—reserving, however, his vote against the whole, when that question shall be taken. MR. VAN BUREN said, that as the vote he should now give on what was called the highway qualification, would be different from what it had been on a former occasion, he felt it a duty to make a brief explanation of the motives which governed him. The qualifications reported by the first committee, were of three kinds, viz: the payment of a money tax-the performance of military

duty, and working on the highway. The two former had met with his decided approbation; to the latter he wished to add the additional qualification, that the elector should, if he paid no tax, performed no militia duty, but offered his vote on the sole ground that he had laboured on the highways, also be a house-holder; and that was the only point in which he had dissented from the report of the committee. To effect this object, he supported a motion made by a gentleman from Dutchess, to strike out the highway qualification, with a view of adding "house-holder." That motion, after full discussion, had prevailed by a majority of twenty. But what was the consequence? The very next day, the same gentlemen who thought the highway tax too liberal a qualification, voted that every person of twenty-one years of age, having a certain term of residence, and excluding actual paupers, should be permitted to vote for any officer in the government, from the highest to the lowest-Far outvieing, in in this particular, the other states in the union, and verging from the extreme of restricted, to that of universal suffrage. The Convention, sensible of the very great stride which had been taken by the last vote, the next morning referred the whole matter to a select committee of thirteen, whose report was now under consideration. That committee, though composed of gentlemen, a large majority of whom had voted for the proposition for universal suffrage, had now recommended a middle course, viz-the payment of a money tax, or labour on the highway, excluding militia service, which had, however, been very properly reinstated. The question then recurred; shall an attempt be again made to add that of house-holder, to the highway qualification, and run the hazard of the re-introduction of the proposition of the gentleman from Washington, abandoning all qualifications, and throwing open the ballot boxes to every body-demolishing at one blow, the distinctive character of an elector, the proudest and most invaluable attribute of freemen?

MR. VAN BUREN said, he had, on the motion of the gentleman from Columbia, this day hinted at the numerous objections which he had to the proposition, which the other day passed the Convention, in regard to the right of suffrage: objections which he intended to make, had the committee reported in favour of that vote; and by which, when fully urged, he knew that he would be able to convince every member of this committee of the dangerous and alarming tendency of that precipitate and unexpected prostration of all qualifications. At this moment, he would only say, that among the many evils which would flow from a wholly unrestricted suffrage, the following would be the most injurious,

viz:

First. It would give to the city of New-York about twenty-five thousand votes; whilst, under the liberal extension of the right on the choice of delegates to this convention, she had but about thirteen or fourteen thousand. That the character of the increased number of votes would be such as would render their elections rather a curse than a blessing: which would drive from the polls all sober minded people; and such, he was happy to find, was the united opinion, er nearly so, of the delegation from that city.

Secondly. It would not only be injurious to them, but that injury would work an equally great one to the western and northern parts of the state. It was the present consolation of our hardy sons of the west, that, for their toils and their sufferings in reducing the wilderness to cultivation, they were cheered by the conviction, not only that they would be secure in the enjoyment of their dear bought improvements, in consequence of their representation in the legislature, but that any increase of that represention gave them a still greater influence there. That as far as it respected this state, their march, and the march of empire kept pace. This arose from the circumstance of the representation in the state being founded on the number of electors; and because almost every man in a new country was an elector, under the existing and contemplated qualifications: whilst in the old counties, and especially in cities, there were great numbers who would not be embraced by them. So great was this effect, that the city of New-York alone would, under the vote of the other day, have become entitled to additional voters, over those who voted at the election of delegates, equal, or nearly so, to the whole number of votes of Ontario or GeThe direct consequence of which would be, that the additional repre

nesee.

sentation of fourteen members, which are next year to be distributed among the counties, would, instead of going principally to the west, be surrendered to the worst population of the old counties and cities.

And thirdly, The door would have been entirely closed against retreat, whatever might be our after conviction, founded on experience, as to the evil tendency of this extended suffrage.

The just equilibrium between the rights of those who have, and those who have no interest in the government, could, when once thus surrendered, never be regained, except by the sword. But, according to the present report, if experience should point out dangers, from the very extensive qualifications we were about to establish, the legislature might relieve against the evil, by curtailing the objects of taxation. By the establishment of turnpikes, the making of canals, and the general improvements of the country, the highway tax would naturally be lessened, and might, if the legislature thought proper, be hereafter confined to property, instead of imposing it, as they now do, on adult male citizens. For one hundred years at least, this would afford a sufficient protection against the evils which were apprehended. He would, therefore, notwithstanding his desire to have the qualification of house-holder added to the electors of the third description remained unchanged, accept the report of the committee as it was, with the addition of the military qualification, which he thought ought to be adopted, for the sake of principle, if for no other reason.

He thought the committee, constituted as they were, had done themselves great credit by their concession to the opinion of those from whom they differed, and he, for one, returned them his sincere thanks. Under all circumstances, he would be well satisfied with the right of suffrage, as it will now be established, and would give it his zealous support, as well in his capacity of delegate, as that of citizen.

MR. RADCLIFF. He had voted on a former occasion, for striking out the highway tax. He had afterwards voted for the proposition of the gentleman from Washington. He had done so, because by the previous qualifications they had gone so far, that he supposed it best, to save all dispute about who were entitled to vote, to adopt a rule about which there could be no dispute. The select committee had now reported, to add to the proposition of the gentleman from Washington, the assessment of highway tax; this would operate very unequally. In the city of New-York, they had no such tax, and none would be admitted to vote, under this last clause, who were not embraced in the former. He would therefore move to strike out the words" and shall have been, within the last year, assessed to labour upon the public highways, and shall have performed the labour, or paid an equivalent therefor, according to law."

The motion of Mr. Radcliff was supported by the mover, and Mr. Sharpe, and opposed by Messrs. Spencer, Young, and Burroughs, when the question was taken by ayes and noes, and decided in the negative as flows :

NOES-Messrs. Beckwith, Birdseye, Bowman, Breese, Brinkerhoff, Brooks, Buel, Burroughs, Carpenter, Carver, Case, Child, D. Clark, R. Clarke, Clyde, Collins, Cramer, Day, Dodge, Dubois, Duer, Eastwood, Edwards, Fenton, Ferris, Fish, Frost, Hallock, Hees, Hogeboom, Howe, Humphrey, Hunt, Hunting, Huntington, Hurd, Jay, Jones, Kent, Lansing, Lefferts, A. Livingston, McCall, Moore, Munro, Nelson, Park, Paulding, Pike, Pitcher, Porter, Platt, President, Price, Pumpelly, Rhinelander, Richards, Root, Rosebrugh, Ross, Russell, Sage, R. Sandford, Schenck, Seeley, Sharpe, Sheldon, R. Smith, Spencer, Stagg, Starkweather, Steele, Swift, Tallmadge, Taylor, Townsend, Tuttle, Van Buren, Van Fleet, Van Ness, Ward, E. Webster, Wendover, Wheaton, Wheeler, E. Williams, Woodward, Young-86.

AYES-Messrs. Bacon, Barlow, Briggs, Dyckman, Fairlie, King, Lawrence, Radcliff, N. Sanford, Seaman, I. Smith, S. Van Rensselaer, Van Vechten, Woods-14.

MR. BUEL then moved to amend by striking out all that part of the section under consideration which is included between the words and also," in the ninth line, and the words “according to law," in the thirteenth line, inclusive, The ayes and noes having been required thereon, the question was taken, and decided in the negative, as follows:

NOES-Messrs. Bacon, Barlow, Beckwith, Briggs, Brinkerhoff, Brooks, Burroughs, Carpenter, Carver, Case, Child, D. Clark, R. Clarke, Clyde, Col lins, Day, Dodge, Dubois, Dyckman, Eastwood, Fenton, Ferris, Fish, Frost, Hallock, Hees, Howe, Humphrey, Hunt, Hunting, Huntington, Hurd, Lansing, Lefferts, A. Livingston, M'Call, Moore, Nelson, Park, Pike, Pitcher, President, Price, Pumpelly, Radcliff, Richards, Root, Rosebrugh, Ross, Russell, Sage, N. Sandford, R. Sandford, Schenck, Seeley, Sheldon, I. Smith, R. Smith, Starkweather, Steele, D. Southerland, Swift, Tallmadge, Taylor, Townsend, Tripp, Tuttle, Van Buren, Van Fleet, Van Ness, Ward, E. Webster, Wendover, Wheeler, E. Williams, Woodward, Young-77.

AYES-Messrs. Birdseye, Bowman, Buel, Duer, Edwards, Fairlie, Jay, Jones, Kent, King, Lawrence, Munro, Paulding, Platt, Porter, Rhinelander, Seaman, Sharpe, Spencer, Stagg, Van Horne, S. Van Rensselaer, Van Vechten, Wheaton, Woods-26.

The question was then taken upon the whole of that part of the section as before presented and carried.

The Proviso was next in order.

GEN. ROOT moved to rise and report. He hoped they would not (it being 3 o'clock) take up the negroes upon an empty stomach.

MR. E. WILLIAMS was opposed to the motion for rising and reporting. He said that the history of the week would show that it was inexpedient to rise and report until questions were settled. Day after day we had heard the same arguments, and the same language too, repeated verbatum three or four times over. The repetition of the same words might be very edifying to the speakers, but were tedious and sickening to the hearers. He hoped therefore that the committee would not rise.

The motion to rise and report was lost.

MR. R. CLAKKE moved to strike out the words "subject to taxation, or" in the 23d line of the proviso, lost.

MR. BACON said that he objected to this mode of excluding the black popu lation from voting, because, in the first place, it was an attempt to do a thing indirectly which we appeared either to be ashamed of doing, or for some reason hose not to do directly, a course which he thought every way unworthy of us. This freehold qualification is, as it applies to nearly all the blacks, a practical exclusion, and if this is right, it ought to be done directly. By the adoption of this too, we involved ourselves in the most obvious inconsistency, declaring thereby, that although property either real or personal, was no correct test of qualification in the case of a white man, it was a very good one in that of a black one, that although as gentlemen had maintained it conferred neither ta lents, integrity, or independence on the one, it imparted them all to the other. If we were determined to exclude them at all, it would be more correct and honourable to do it directly. In relation to that general question he would take this opportunity for the first time, to explain, in a few words, his general views. He had as little fondness as any one for either legislating or forming systems of government wholly upon those general sweeping theories of the universal and inaliable rights of man, of which we have heard so much here, and whoever attempted to bottom all his measures upon any general theories, without al luding to the practical limitations and exceptions to which they were always subject, shewed himself a very crude statesman, and a rash and dangerous legislator. One of our first general principles is, that we recognize no distinct casts or orders of men, having distinct and fixed personal or political rights,--and nothing but a strong political necessity can authorise a violation of this principle, could it be made to appear that any such necessity existed in the present case, he would not hesitate to yield to it. But what are the facts adduced to make out such a case? The documents before us shew an entire black population of hardly forty thousand of all ages and sexes, both slaves and free, scattered through a white population of nearly a million and a half; and that so far from the former gaining upon us, it has for the thirty years past sensibly diminished when compared with the latter. Whence then the apprehended danger, when an experience of forty years has brought with it none. The exclusion from the right of suffrage, of aliens, of females and others, allud