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stitution of the United States, on the pretence that such person is so held and has escaped, shall be punished by fine and imprisonment. 8. Persons sustaining the injury above specified may sustain action for damages. 9. No person holding any office under the State may issue warrant or process, or grant certificate, under the laws of Congress of 1793 and 1850. 10. Penalty by loss of office and future disqualification. 11. Attorney for claimants of fugitives disqualified from acting thereafter as counsel or attorney in the State courts. 12. The preceding two sections not to apply to removal from judicial office, but the performance of the actions therein specified shall be sufficient for impeachment, as violation of good behavior. 13. No person qualified to issue warrant and certificate, in virtue of office under the United States, may at the same time hold office under the State. 14. Judicial officers who continue to hold the office of U. S. Commissioner deemed to violate good behavior, and made liable to removal. 15. State officers, sheriffs, &c., declared punishable by fine and imprisonment for arresting persons claimed as fugitives. 16. The volunteer militia forbidden to act in seizing, &c., and declared punishable in like manner. 17. The governor to appoint county. commissioners to defend persons claimed as fugitives. 18. To be paid by the State. 19. State jails not to be used for the detention of persons claimed. 20. Habeas-corpus laws to apply to these cases. 21. Act declared not applicable to fugitives from justice.' 22. Inconsistent acts repealed."

1858, c. 175. An act to amend the above. Sec. 1. Forbids the tenure of judicial office under the State, except the office of justice of the peace, by persons holding'such office under the United States, or the office of United States Commissioner, and forbids any justice holding the latter office to issue any process or try cause. 2. Limits the fifteenth and sixteenth

An act in relation to fugitives from justice, Laws of 1857, c. 289, provides that person arrested as such shall not be delivered up "until he shall have been notified of the demand made for his surrender, and shall have had opportunity to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, if he shall claim such right of the officer making the arrest. The act of 1859, c. 81, prescribes the evidence without which such delivery shall not be made. Gen'l Stat. ch. 177, §§ 1-3.

Returned by the governor (Gardner), with objections, and passed by a twothird vote of both branches of the Assembly.

VOL. II.-3.

sections of the amended act. 3. Repeals the tenth, eleventh, thirteenth, and fourteenth sections. Gen'l Stats. c. 144, § 67.

§ 546. LEGISLATION OF THE STATE OF MAINE.'

1819.-State Constitution adopted by a convention. Art. 1, sec. 1. That "all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural," &c., &c. In some sections rights are attributed to "every citizen," in others, to "every person." Art. II. sec. 1, declaring the elective franchise, makes no distinction of color. The militia law of 1821 specifies whites as liable to duty. R. S. of 1821, ch. 144, § 1.

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1821. An act for the protection of the personal liberty of the citizens and for other purposes. R. S. of 1821, c. 22, sec. 1. Declares the punishment for removing "any person lawfully residing and inhabiting therein to any part or place without the limits of the same without his consent," except for military defence or when "sent by due course of law to answer for some criminal offence." No special reference is made to fugitive slaves. —. A law regulating marriage, declares "all marriages between a white person and any negro, Indian, or mulatto shall be absolutely void." R. S. of 1821, c. 70, § 2. R. S. of 1847, c. 59, sec. 3.

1838, c. 323. An act against kidnapping or selling for a slave, "without lawful authority." R. S. of 1857, c. 118, $ 19.

1855, c. 182. An act further to protect personal liberty. Sec. 1. State judges and justices of the peace forbidden to take cognizance of cases under Acts of Congress of 1793 and 1850. 2. Sheriffs, &c., shall not assist in arresting those claimed as slaves. 3. Penalty on justices of the peace, sheriff, &c. 4. Not to be construed to affect officers of the United States. Additional is c. 43 of 1857, making it the duty of the county attorney to defend persons claimed as slaves. But these acts appear

'Act of Congress for the admission of Maine into the Union, March 3, 1820. III. Stat. U. S. 544.

2 An act of 1821 and of 1838, c. 330, authorize the governor to deliver up persons charged as fugitives from justice. R. S. of 1821, c. 113, § 2; R. S. of 1840, e. 174, § 2; R. S. of 1857, c. 138, § 5. In the index to R. S. of 1830-33, the titles slaves, negroes, &c., do not appear.

to have been repealed by R. S. of 1857, in which only the penalties on sheriffs, &c., for aiding in the arrest, &c., of persons claimed as fugitive slaves are retained. See R. S. c. 80, § 53.

1857, c. 53. An act declaring all slaves brought by their masters into this State free, and to punish any attempt to exercise authority over them. R. S. of 1857, c. 118, § 29.

$547. LEGISLATION OF THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.'

1783. Constitution adopted; with Bill of Rights declaring Art. 1. "All men are born equally free and independent; therefore, all government of right originates from the people, is founded in consent and instituted for the general good." 2. "All men have certain natural, essential, and inherent rights; among which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and, in a word, seeking and obtaining happiness." 3. "When men enter into a state of society they surrender up some of their natural rights to that society in order to ensure the protection of others; and without such an equivalent the surrender is void." 4. "Among the natural rights some are in their very nature inalienable, because no equivalent can be given or received for them. Of this kind are the rights of conscience." 12. "Every member of the community has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property," &c. Other attributions of rights are made in language applying to all natural persons.

A new Constitution was adopted Sep. 5, 1792, with the same Bill of Rights. The only amendment thereafter was the abolition, in 1852, of certain property qualifications for office. See Compiled Laws of 1853.

There appears not to have been any action of the legislative department in reference to slavery. Its unlawfulness in New Hampshire must be caused by this Bill of Rights; or here, as in Massachusetts, it may be said that slavery was abolished by the Constitution. 1792, Dec. 28, a militia law specifies white

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1 1776, Sept. 11. An act to adopt and take the name, stile, and title of State in lieu of Colony in New Hampshire, enacted "by the council and assembly." Laws ed. Exeter 1780.

A State Constitution proposed by a convention in 1779, was rejected by a vote of the people. Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. p. 155.

1 Hildreth Hist. U. S. 2d ser. 175. In the index to the N. H. Body of Laws, published 1792, the words negro, mulatto, Indian, slave, servant, are not found. The

persons as subject to enrollment. The law of 1857 makes no distinction.

1857. An act to secure freedom and the rights of citizenship to persons in this State. Laws, c. 1955. Sec. 1. Enacts "that neither descent, near or remote, from a person of African blood, whether such person is or may have been a slave, nor color of skin, shall disqualify any person from becoming a citizen of this State, or deprive such person of the full rights and privileges of a citizen thereof. 2. Any slave who shall come or be brought into, or be in this State, with the consent of his master or mistress, or who shall come, or be brought into, or be in this State, involuntarily, shall be free. 3. Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold in this State in slavery, or as a slave, any person of whatever color, class, or condition, in any form, or under any pretence, or for any length of time, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction thereof, shall be confined to hard labor for a term of not less than one, nor more than five years: Provided that the provisions of this section shall not apply to any act lawfully done by any officer of the United States, or other person in the execution of any legal process. 4. Section first, of chapter twenty-five of the Compiled Statutes shall not be so construed as in any case to deprive any person of color or of African descent, born within the limits of the United States and having the other requisite qualifications, from voting at any election; but such person shall have and exercise the right of suffrage as fully and lawfully as persons of the white race."

$548. LEGISLATION OF THE STATE OF VERMONT.

1777, July 2. Constitution. Chap. I. is a declaration of

statutes on marriage make no distinctions founded on color. On the law of kidnapping, see State v. Rollins, 8 N. H. 550.

In the Rev. Statutes of 1842, ch. 223, and the Compiled Statutes of 1853, ch. 238,-Of fugitives from justice, the governor of the State is empowered to make the surrender of persons charged with crimes in other States.

Which provides that "every male inhabitant of each town, being a native or naturalized citizen of the United States, of the age," &c., &c.

3 For the history of the conflicting claims of New York and New Hampshire and the establishment of an independent State Government, see Vermont State Papers, 8vo. ed. 1823.

Established by Convention without being then submitted to the electors fo: ratification, see Vt. St. P. p. 241; but afterwards ratified, with some amendments in 1793; see note to Compiled Laws of 1850, p. 47.

the rights of the inhabitants of the State of Vermont. Art. 1. "That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Therefore, no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law to serve any person, as a servant, slave, or apprentice, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent, after they arrive to such age, or bound by law, for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs or the like." Ch. II. Art. 18, gives the elective franchise without regard to color.

1779.—An act for securing the general privileges of the people, and establishing common law and the Constitution as part of the laws of this State. Recites in the language of the Massachusetts Fundamentals, concluding,-" or in case of the defect of such law in any particular case, by some plain rule warranted by the word of God."

"That all the people of the American States, within this State, whether they be inhabitants or not, shall enjoy the same justice and law that is general for this State, in all cases proper for the cognizance of the civil authority and courts of judicature in the same, and that without partiality or delay; and that no man's person shall be restrained," &c., &c.

"That common law, as it is generally practiced and understood in the New-England States, be and is hereby established as the common law of this State.

"That the Constitution of this State, as established by General Convention held at Windsor, July and December, 1777, together with and agreeable to such alterations and additions as shall be made in such Constitution agreeable to the 44th section in the plan of government, shall be forever considered held and maintained, as part of the laws of this State." Vt. State Papers, 288.

1786, Oct. 30.-An act to prevent the sale and transportation of negroes and mulattoes out of this State. Laws of 1787,

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