^ INTRODUCTION. 



Joint tenancies have been changed into tenancies in common. Lands mortgaged 

 for the payment of debts have been placed at the disposal of the mortgagee and 

 executor. Obstructions in the w^ay of executions upon property, have been re- 

 moved. Technicalities in conveyances have been dispensed with. The intri- 

 cate statutes in regard to uses and trusts, have been simplified. The system of 

 pleadings and practice in courts of law^ and equity, has been rendered less 

 tedious and expensive. 



Samuel Jones was distinguished as the prominent leader in these improve- 

 ments in jurisprudence, and especially as the author of the statute for the amend- 

 ment of the law and the better advancement of justice, and the laws relating to real 

 estate. But there is one feature in this progress of improvement too prominent 

 to be passed v»dthout more special notice. The first public evidence that justice 

 was awakened in regard to the bondage of the African race, was manifested in 

 a law passed during the revolution, by which slaves were invited to enlist in the 

 provincial forces, with the consent of their masters, under a promise of emanci- 

 pation after the term of their military service. When the constitution of the 

 United States was formed, enlightened men throughout the union could not close 

 their eyes against the evils which must obviously flow from guaranteeing, in that 

 instrument, the perpetual maintenance of slavery ; and while a portion of the 

 states refused to enter the compact, except upon receiving concessions which they 

 deemed sufficient to secure themselves against an early abolition of slavery by the 

 power of the general government, this state, and others, refused to assent to a phra- 

 seology which could be construed to forbid emancipation; and all agreed to confer 

 upon congress the right to inhibit the importation of slaves after the year 1808. 

 The right of suffrage, under the first constitution of this state, was granted to free 

 citizens, without distinction on the ground of color or descent. Mr. Jay was 

 absent when the constitution prepared by him was adopted by the convention. 

 In a letter addressed to two members of that body soon afterwards, Mr. Jay, 

 after objecting to some features of the constitution, said, "the other parts I 

 approve, and only regret that like a harvest cut before it was all ripe, some of 



