1781.
thus eſtablished, met on the 28th of November, 1776, and then choſe their Speaker and Clerk. 1. Min. Aſſ. 98. On the ſucceeding day the clerk was qualified, ſeveral public officers were appointed, and votes were entered into reſpecting the collection of fines from non-aſſociators, and the enacting of a Militia-Law. id. On the 30th of November, the houſe having made ſundry orders relative to the Militia, adjourned till the 1ſt of December; and on the 5th of that month, when the houſe were again aſſembled, a committee was appointed to bring in the draft of a Militia-Law, id. 100—With reſpect to the Executive Council, it is true, that body did not enter upon any official buſineſs, till the beginning of March, 1777; but its members were choſen at the ſame time with the members of the Legiſlature.
From this recapitulation, it appears, that, even before the eſtabliſhment of the conſtitution, a government under the authority of the people was adminiſtered by councils, committees, and conventions. After the eſtabliſhment of the conſtitution, however, the legiſlative (which is the ſovereign) body aſſembled and proceeded to diſcharge its duties; and it was not neceſſary to the exiſtence of the government, either that they ſhould have enacted a law, or that the Supreme Executive Council ſhould have been convened.
Under every change of the government, Samuel Chapman, remained here till the 26th day of December, 1776; and, at that time, he was certainly a ſubject of the ſtate of Pennſylvania, under the conſtitution agreed to on the 28th day of September preceding, whatever doubts may be entertained with reſpect to the former eſtabliſhments. That this was, likewiſe, the ſenſe of the legiſlature, is abundantly evident from the act on which the proclamation is founded; for, Mr. Galloway, and others, who joined the enemy in the fall of 1776, are there conſidered as ſubjects of Pennſylvania; and all the ſtates are clearly deemed to have been free and independent from the declaration publiſhed by Congreſs on the 4th of July in that year.
The Attorney-General, to ſhew the definition of a nation, the relation which a citizen bears to the ſtate, and the natural connexion between a ſtate of ſociety and the inſtitution of a government, cited the following authors: Vatt. 92. id. B. 1. c. 19. ſect. 212. id. ſect. 1. p. 9. id. ſect. 4. Burlem. 25. 1. Black. Com. 46. 47. 48. 213. Vatt. p. 15. ſect. 26. id. 19. ſect. 38.
The Chief Justice, delivered a learned and circumſtantial charge to the Jury. After ſtating the proclamation, the iſſue, and the evidence, be proceeded as follows.
M’Kean Chief Juſtice:—The queſtion that is to be decided on the facts before us, is, whether Samuel Chapman, the priſoner at the bar, ever was a ſubject of this Commonwealth? The reaſon which has been principally urged to take him out of that deſcription, is that on the 26th day of December, in the year 1776, when he withdrew from Pennſylvania, no government exiſted to which he could owe allegiance as a ſubject.—I ſhall, in the firſt place, conſider howfar
