“We have copied on our last page, from the Brooklyn (Conn.) Unionist, a report of the trial of Miss Crandall with the charge of Judge Daggett. It will be seen that Judge D. has given it as his opinion, that no colored man is a citizen of the United States. This opinion, we are sure, will be viewed with astonishment in many parts of the Union. In Massachusetts, the constitution and laws have never deprived any man of any privilege on account of the color of his skin. The black man there votes, buys and sells real estate, and is eligible to the office of Judge, Senator, or Governor. The same is true of Maine, and we believe also of Vermont, New Hampshire, and several other States. In Connecticut and New York, it is true, the laws are not equally creditable to the humanity and republicanism of the people; and in most of the states farther south, there are distinctions between different classes of the population still more opposed to sound moral and political principle, but we believe that Judge D. is the first judge in the United States who has officially expressed the opinion, that free colored men are not citizens. We cannot believe that this is sound law, and we are supported in this belief by some of the ablest jurists in our country, whose opinions we quote below.

While we are on this subject we must caution our foreign friends not to make too wide an application of the censure which they may found on the proceedings in the case of Miss Crandall. So far as we have noticed, those proceedings, beyond the limits of Connecticut, are everywhere viewed with marked disapprobation. We regard them as the offspring of a delusion similar to that which pervades Georgia in relation to the Cherokees. It is local, and we trust it will be temporary.

The opinions of the jurists referred to above, are contained in the following extracts from “Reports of the proceedings and debates of the Convention of 1821, assembled for the purpose of amending the Constitution of the State of New-York.” The extracts were made by Judge W. Jay, of Bedford.”