And this consideration of certainty, as to the individuals and numbers belonging to each of these two classes, "free" and "all other persons," acquires an increased and irresistible force, when it is considered that these different classes of persons constitute also different bases for taxation, as well as representation. The requirement of the constitution is, that "representatives and _direct taxes_ shall be apportioned," &c., according to the number of "free persons" and "all other persons." In reference to so important a subject as taxation, _accurate_ and _legal_ knowledge of the persons and numbers belonging to the different classes, becomes indispensable. Yet under the slave construction this legal knowledge becomes impossible. Under the other construction it is as perfectly and entirely within the power of congress, as, in the nature of things, such a subject can be--for naturalization is a legal process; and legal records, prescribed by congress, may be, and actually are, preserved of all the persons naturalized or made "free" by their laws. If we adopt that meaning of the word "free," which is consistent with freedom--that meaning which is consistent with natural right--the meaning given to it by the Articles of Confederation, by the then existing state constitutions, by the colonial charters, and by the English law ever since our ancestors enjoyed the name of freemen, all these difficulties, inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities, that must otherwise arise, vanish. The word "free" then describes the native and naturalized citizens of the United States, and the words "all other persons" describe resident aliens, "Indians not taxed," and possibly some others. The representation is then placed upon the best, most just, and most rational basis that the words used can be made to describe. The representation also becomes equal and uniform throughout the country. The principle of distinction between the two bases, becomes also a stable, rational and intelligible one--one too necessarily growing out of the exercise of one of the powers granted to congress;--one, too, whose operation could have been foreseen and judged of by the people who adopted the constitution--instead of one fluctuating with the ever changing and arbitrary legislation of the various states, whose mode and motives of action could not have been anticipated. Adopt this definition of the word "free," and the same legislature, (that is, the national one,) that is required by the constitution to apportion the representation according to certain principles, becomes invested--as it evidently ought to be, and as it necessarily must be, to be efficient--with the power of determining, by their own (naturalization) laws, who are the persons composing the different bases on which its apportionment is to be made; instead of being, as they otherwise would be, obliged to seek for these persons through all the statute books of all the different states of the union,