752 SAN MIGUEL, EVARISTO. 



France, Prussia, and Russia had each bound 

 themselves in the Congress of Verona to put 

 down all liberal movements among the mon- 

 archies of the Continent ; and each power ad- 

 dressed a note to the Madrid cabinet, summon- 

 ing it to return to the old system. To these 

 notes San Miguel replied in a manner which 

 indicated alike the strength of his devotion 

 to liberal principles and his intellectual abili- 

 ty in defending them. He gave the history 

 of the liberal movement, showed that the 

 present constitution had been recognized by 

 the Emperor of Russia in 1812, that they pro- 

 fessed the right to manage their own affairs, 

 and denied the right of other powers to inter- 

 meddle, and concluded with the declaration 

 that his Majesty's Government would not devi- 

 ate a hair's breadth from the line which national 

 honor and its unvarying adhesion to the con- 

 stitution of 1812, which it had sworn to ob- 

 serve, had traced out for it. The Holy Alliance 

 was astonished ; but it had gone too far to re- 

 cede. The ambassadors of the four powers 

 were withdrawn, and France took the lead in 

 the work of attempting to crush out constitu- 

 tional freedom. A long war ensued, and San 

 Miguel, as brave in the field as in the cabinet, 

 joined the army in Catalonia, and greatly dis- 

 tinguished himself in almost every engagement 

 of the next three years. He was repeatedly 

 wounded, in 1826 so severely that his recovery 

 seemed almost a miracle, and finally taken pris- 

 oner, but soon after released on condition of 

 quitting Spain. The next 8 years of his life 

 were spent in honorable exile in England, 

 and he did not return to his own country till 

 the amnesty proclaimed by the queen regent in 

 1834 restored him to his rights. Soon after 

 his return, he was appointed by the queen Cap- 

 tain-General of Aragon, and elected a Deputy 

 to the Cortes. In 1842, under the regency of 

 Espartero, he was appointed Captain-General 

 of the Basque Provinces, and after the fall of 

 the regent in 1843, retired into private life, 

 and resided chiefly in Madrid. In 1847, he 

 published a History of Philip II, on which he 

 had been for some years engaged. In 1854, 

 he was again called into public life, On the 

 overthrow of the Sartorius Ministry, being 

 named by the queen Captain-General of Ma- 

 drid and Minister of War. For some time he 

 was in effect universal minister, Espartero not 

 having arrived, and none of his colleagues be- 

 ing efficient. In July he was named President 

 of the Junta, and in that position controlled 

 and held in check both O'Donnell and Espar- 

 tero. He was, at the close of the revolution, 

 raised to the rank of field marshal, and hav- 

 ing been elected to the constitutional Cortes, 

 was for some time its president. In 1856, he 

 was made a grandee of the first class, and ap- 

 pointed Commandant General of the House- 

 hold Guard. As a grandee, he took his seat in 

 the Senate in 1857, when he supported a liberal 

 government to the last. He was greatly es- 

 teemed in private life for his probity and amia- 



SLAVES. 



bility. Beside the History above named, he 

 was the author of several other works, mostly 

 relating to the wars of his time. 



SLAVES. The questions relative to the 

 political, civil, and social position of negroes, 

 or " colored persons of African descent," as 

 they were designated by Congress and the ex- 

 ecutive officers of the Federal Government, be- 

 came more prominent during 1862 than in any 

 previous period. An elaborate opinion was pre- 

 pared by the U. S. Attorney-General, Mr. Bates, 

 on the question " are colored men citizens of 

 the United States?" The chief points of the 

 opinion were that the Constitution does not 

 define the word citizen, the Attorney General 

 therefore examines history and the civil law 

 from the existence of the Roman Empire to the 

 present day to discover its meaning. His con- 

 clusion is that all free persons, without dis- 

 tinction of race or color, if native born, are citi- 

 zens. A distinction is made between the in- 

 herent rights of citizens and the political 

 privileges of certain classes. All citizens have 

 a right to protection, but only certain classes 

 enjoy the privileges of voting and holding 

 office. Hitherto not only the public but jurists 

 have often confounded the two. A child or a 

 woman is a citizen, though not always privi- 

 leged to vote or hold office. The Bred Scott 

 opinions are pronounced void and of no author- 

 ity, since the province of the Supreme Court 

 was only to settle the questions of the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Circuit Court. They are simply 

 entitled to the respect due to the views of emi- 

 nent gentlemen, and no more. The paper con- 

 cludes as follows : 



"And now, upon the whole matter, I give it 

 as my opinion that the free man of color men- 

 tioned in your letter, if born in the United 

 States, is a citizen of the United States, and, 

 if otherwise qualified, is competent, according 

 to the acts of Congress, to be master of a ves- 

 sel engaged in the coasting trade." 



The same general question was raised by the 

 Secretary of State in referring an application 

 for a passport by a negro to the Attorney Gen- 

 eral. 



In Massachusetts the governor, Andrew, or- 

 dered negroes to be enrolled as well as white 

 persons for the purpose of drafting soldiers. 

 The Attorney General of the State justified the 

 order on the. ground that " Congress and the 

 war department both leave out the word white 

 from the description of the class to be en- 

 rolled." He further adds: "The only possible 

 question now open is whether colored men are 

 citizens of Massachusetts, which no one, I pre- 

 sume, will have the hardihood to deny, inas- 

 much as they are tax-payers, voters, jurors, and 

 eligible to office, and there is no inequality 

 founded on distinction of races known to our 

 laws." 



On the other hand the Circuit Court of Illi- 

 nois sitting in Montgomery county decided that 

 negroes were not citizens. In this case the com- 

 plainant filed his bill to enjoin the payment to 



