1. The preamble to the frame of government of the constitution of Virginia speaks of negroes in this connexion, to wit: It charges George the Third, among other things, with "prompting _our negroes_ to rise in arms among us, those very negroes, whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us permission to exclude by law." Here is no assertion that these "negroes" were slaves; but only that they were a class of people whom the Virginians did not wish to have in the state, _in any capacity_--whom they wished "to exclude by law." The language, considered as legal language, no more implies that they were slaves, than the charge of having prompted "our women, children, farmers, mechanics, or our people with red hair, or our people with blue eyes, or our Dutchmen, or our Irishmen to rise in arms among us," would have implied that those portions of the people of Virginia were slaves. And especially when it is considered that slavery had had no prior _legal_ existence, this reference to "negroes" authorizes no legal inference whatever in regard to slavery. The rest of the Virginia constitution is eminently democratic. The bill of rights declares "that all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights,"* * * * "namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." 2. The preamble to the Pennsylvania constitution used the word "slaves" in this connexion. It recited that the king of Great Britain had employed against the inhabitants of that commonwealth, "foreign mercenaries, savages and slaves." This is no acknowledgment that they themselves had any slaves of their own; much less that they were going to continue their slavery; for the constitution contained provisions plainly incompatible with that. Such, for instance, is the following: which constitutes the first article of the "Declaration of Rights of the Inhabitants," (i.e. of _all_ the inhabitants) "of the state of Pennsylvania." 1. "That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights, among which are, the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." The 46th section of the frame of government is in these words. "The Declaration of Rights is hereby declared to be a part of the constitution of this commonwealth, and ought never to be violated on any pretence whatever." Slavery was clearly impossible under these two constitutional provisions, to say nothing of others. 2. Several of the constitutions provide that all the laws of the colonies, previously "_in force_," should continue in force until repealed, _unless repugnant to some of the principles of the constitutions themselves_.