Volume 8 — DENIAL OF PATENTS TO COLORED INVENTORS.

Resolution and Remarks in the Senate, December 16, 1861.

Mr. Sumner offered the following resolution, and asked for its present consideration.

“Resolved, That the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office be directed to consider if any further legislation is necessary in order to secure to persons of African descent, in our own country, the right to take out patents for useful inventions, under the Constitution of the United States.”

MR. PRESIDENT,—If I can have the attention of the Chairman of the Committee on Patents, I will state to him why this resolution is introduced. It has come to my knowledge that an inventor of African descent, living in Boston, applied for a patent under the Constitution and laws of the land, and was refused, on the ground, that, according to the Dred Scott decision, he is not a citizen of the United States, and therefore a patent cannot issue to him. I wish the Committee to consider whether in any way that abuse cannot be removed. That is all.

The resolution was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to.

The Committee made no report on the resolution. It was a case for interpretation rather than legislation, and the question, like that of passports, was practically settled not long afterwards by the opinion of the Attorney-General, that a free man of color, born in the United States, is a citizen.[9] Since then patents have been issued to colored inventors.