Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Speaker, I do contradict the assertion of the honorable gentleman, and I will prove it by reference to the cast. If the gentleman will look, over the opinil m of every judge that delivered an opinion in that case, he will find that not one of them diss tuted from that doctrine and there is nowhr rein any of those opinions any such ground taken as that taken by gentlemen here, that when those men framed the DeclarIndep they meant to declare that they were going to enter into a war with Great Brita. n for the purpose of settling the rights of the Ai rican race as it existed in this country at that Lime. The object of the war of the Revolution v as to proclaim liberty to the white people of the roun try. They were the people who assembl. d in the Hall of Iudependence and pronounced that great axiom of humanliberty, when they declared that they would destroy the power of GreatBritain over them, and that, because of the tyranny which that country attempt did to exercise over them, they would be free. They are the ones who fought the battles of the Revolution, who followed in the footsteps of l Inshington and the other great generals who 11 d the heroes and sages of the Revolution; they are the ones who have put down this rebellion this mighty, gigantic rebellion. which for the last 4 and a half cars has swept over this land, and they are th handed down to posterity unimpaired this bright heritage of liberty to the white race, for which the blood of our fathers was spilled on the battlefields of the Revolution. I refer now to the decision to which the gentleman calls my attention, although it iaearlier in my ament than I intended to allude to it. Hero is t ie opinion of the court; it is found in 19 Howard, page 406: “The question then arises, whether the provisions of the constitution in relation to the personal rights and privileges to which the citizens 9 a State should he entitled. embraced the negro African race at that time in this country or who mi afterward be imported. who had then or should afterward be made free in any State and to put it in the power of a single State to audio him a citizen of the U.S and endns him with the lull rights of citizenship in every other State without their consent. Does the constitution of the U.S. notupon him when ever he shall be made free under the laws ofu. State, and raised there to the rauk of n citizen, snd immediatoly clotho him with all the privileges of a citizen in ovory other State and inits owncourts1 “ It is truc. every person and every classand description of persons. who were at the time of the adoption of the constitution recognized as citizens in the several States became also citizens of this new political ody, but none other: it was formed by them and for them and their posterity, but for no one else and the personal rights and privileges guarantied to citi Ions of thisnsw sovereignty woro intondad to embrace those only whq were ten members of the several to communities. orwho should afterward. by birth rlght or othorwise. Become members, according to the proympns of the constitution and the pnnciplos on which it was founded. It was the n nionof thosewho weroat that time membors of distipet and separate political communities into one political family mhose power for certain specified Eur cage. was to extend over the whole territory of the U.S and it gnvo to each citizen rights and privileges outsideo" his State which he did not before possess and placed him in everyother State upon apsrfeot equalit with its own citizens as to rights of person and rights of property: it made him so dium of the U. S. t becomes necessary; therefore, todeterminewho were citizens of the sereral Stateswhen the constitution was adopted and in order to do this. we must recur to the governments and institutions of the 13 colonies when they separated from GreatBritain and formed new sovereignties and took their placcsin the family of independent natioris., Wc mnstin uiro who, at that time. Were o003111581t1hlelp 5ea e or citizens of a State whopo ts and llherties h been outr edby the english government and who declare their independence and assumed the powersof government todofend their rights by force of arms. “Inthe opinion of the court. The legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the DeclarIndep, show that neither the class of persons who had beenim orted as slaves, nor their descendants whether they ad become free or notnwere then no. owlsdesod as a part of the people perintended to be includ in the general words use in that memorable instrument. ".