THE IMPRISONMENT

OF

FREE COLORED SEAMEN.

A REPORT MADE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 20, 1843.

THE Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the memorial of Benjamin Rich and others, submit the subjoined report:

The memorial was commended to the most attentive and respectful consideration of the committee, as well by the subjectmatter to which it relates, as by the character of those from whom it comes.

It is signed by more than one hundred and fifty citizens of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, a large part of whom are very deeply interested in the commerce and navigation of the country, others of whom are eminently distinguished in legal, scientific, or literary pursuits, and all of whom are quite beyond the reach of a suspicion, that they would approach the Legislature of the nation in any cause, in which they did not sincerely believe that important principles or valuable interests were involved. Probably no paper was ever addressed to the Congress of the United States, which represented more of the intelligence, virtue, patriotism, and property also, of the metropolis of New England. In attestation of this statement, the memorial, with its signatures, is appended to this report.

The memorialists appear in the character of citizens of the United States, adding, also, that many of them are masters and owners of vessels.

credit firmly established, private rights secured, and our citizens enjoying the blessings of a mild and active government.

No more, we trust, shall we lament our trade almost wholly in the possession of foreigners; our vessels excluded from the ports of some nations, and fettered with restrictions in others; or materials, the produce of our country, which should be retained for our own use, exported, and increase the maritime consequence of other powers.

To the wisdom of the General Legislature we look up for a correction of these public evils. The formation of treaties and the regulation of commerce are questions which can be committed with safety to the enlightened councils of the Union alone; it would be as unnecessary, as it would be unbecoming, in us to presume to point out the measures proper to be adopted. It is sufficient for us to join with our Northern brethren in asserting, that we have most severely felt the want of such a navigation act as will place our vessels upon an equality with other nations. To you, who are the only proper guardians of our general rights, we resort with confidence for redress, assured that no means will be left unattempted, to remedy these evils, and to render us respectable abroad and at home.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Signed, in the city of Charleston, this 2d day of April, A. D. 1789, by order of the shipwrights.

It was in response to a similar movement among the ship-owners and shipbuilders in Boston, which seemed to aim at the exclusive protection of the navigating interests, that the Boston mechanics, at the head of whom was Paul Revere, put the following well-remembered interrogatory:-"What difference does it make to us, whether hats, shoes, boots, shirts, handkerchiefs, tin ware, brass ware, cutlery, and every other article, come in British ships, or come in your ships; since, in whatever ships they come, they take away our means of living?"

THE IMPRISONMENT

OF

FREE COLORED SEAMEN.

A REPORT MADE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 20, 1843.

THE Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the memorial of Benjamin Rich and others, submit the subjoined report:

The memorial was commended to the most attentive and respectful consideration of the committee, as well by the subjectmatter to which it relates, as by the character of those from whom it comes.

It is signed by more than one hundred and fifty citizens of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, a large part of whom are very deeply interested in the commerce and navigation of the country, others of whom are eminently distinguished in legal, scientific, or literary pursuits, and all of whom are quite beyond the reach of a suspicion, that they would approach the Legislature of the nation in any cause, in which they did not sincerely believe that important principles or valuable interests were involved. Probably no paper was ever addressed to the Congress of the United States, which represented more of the intelligence, virtue, patriotism, and property also, of the metropolis of New England. In attestation of this statement, the memorial, with its signatures, is appended to this report.

The memorialists appear in the character of citizens of the United States, adding, also, that many of them are masters and owners of vessels.

They set forth, that on board the large number of Massachu setts vessels which are accustomed to touch at the Southern ports of this Union, it is frequently necessary to employ free persons of color. They proceed to state, that it often happens, at the ports of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, that these free persons of color are taken from the vessels to which they belong, thrown into prison, and there detained at their own expense. They submit, that such proceedings are greatly to the prejudice and detriment of their interests, and of the commerce of the nation. And they conclude by praying, that relief may be granted to them, and that the privileges of citizenship, secured by the Constitution of the United States, may be rendered effectual in their behalf.

The committee regret to say, that the facts which are set forth in the memorial, have been of too frequent and too notorious occurrence to admit of any denial or doubt. They regret still more to add, that the acts of violence complained of by the memorialists, have owed their occurrence, not to any temporary excitement or any local outbreak, but to the deliberately enacted laws of the States in whose ports they have been perpetrated. It is known to every one, that laws, making it the imperative duty of the local magistrates to search for, arrest, and imprison, any free persons of color belonging to the crews of vessels which may enter their harbors, have existed, and have often been most oppressively executed, during a long series of years, in some of the Southern States of this Union.

The existence of such a law in the State of South Carolina gave occasion, almost twenty years ago, to a formal remonstrance to our National Executive, on the part of the Government of Great Britain, as being in direct conflict with the rights which had been stipulated to British commerce by the most solemn treaties. An interesting correspondence, relating to this remon strance, was communicated to this House during the last session of Congress, and is annexed to this report, for more convenient reference.

Laws of the same character have been more recently enacted in other States. Within the past year only, such a law has been introduced into the code of Louisiana, whether as an original

enactment on the subject, or as a revised statute, the committee have not thought it important to inquire.

The committee have no hesitation in agreeing with the memorialists, that the acts of which they complain, are violations of the privileges of citizenship guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States expressly provides, (art. 4, sec. 2,) that "citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." Now, it is well understood that some of the States of this Union recognize no distinction of color in relation to citizenship. Their citizens are all free; their freemen all citizens. In Massachusetts, certainly-the State from which this memorial emanates the colored man has enjoyed the full and equal privileges of citizenship since the last remnant of slavery was abolished within her borders by the constitution of 1780, nine years before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States, therefore, at its adoption, found the colored man of Massachusetts a citizen of Massachusetts, and entitled him, as such, to all the privileges and immunities of a citizen in the several States. And of these privileges and immunities, the acts set forth in the memorial constitute a plain and palpable violation.

It matters not to this argument, in the opinion of the committee, what may be the precise interpretation given to this clause of the Constitution. However extended or however limited may be the privileges and immunities which it secures, the citizens of each State are entitled to them equally, without discrimination of color or condition; and unless it is maintained that the citizens of Massachusetts generally, may be made subject to seizure and imprisonment for entering these Southern ports in the prosecution of their rightful business, whenever the Legislatures of South Carolina, or Louisiana, or Alabama, or Georgia, may see fit to enact laws to that effect, it is impossible to perceive upon what principle the acts in question can be reconciled with this constitutional provision.

The State laws under which these acts are committed, are also, in the judgment of the committee, in direct contravention of another provision of the Constitution of the United States.