Conway Robinson

“ In Governor Seward's reply of the 24th of October 1839, he says—"It is freely admitted that the argument would be at an end, if it were as clear that one human being may be the property of another as it is that stealing is a crime." It might not be going too far to say, that stealing property is recognized as crime by all laws, and that any state may make that property which she pleases. But here the question is not between Virginia, whose laws recognize slaves as property, and a foreign state, whose laws recognize no such property. ”

“ This brings the case to a single point, whether the statute of the United States, giving power to seize a slave without a warrant, is constitutional? It is difficult, in a case like this, for persons who are not inhabitants of slave-holding states, to prevent prejudice from having too strong an effect on their minds. We must reflect, however, that the constitution was made with some states, in which it would not occur to the mind to inquire whether slaves were property. It was a very serious question when they came to make the constitution, what should be done with their slaves. ”

“ However much, therefore, we may deplore the existence of slavery in any part of the Union, as a national as well as a local evil, yet, as the right of the master to reclaim his fugitive slave is secured to him by the federal constitution, no good citizen, whose liberty and property is protected by that constitution, will interfere to prevent this provision from being carried into full effect, according to its spirit and effect ”

“ As we ought with gratitude to admire that decree of Heaven, which has numbered us among the free, we ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage. But is it practicable by any human means, to liberate them without producing the most dreadful and ruinous consequences? We ought to possess them in the manner we have inherited them from our ancestors, as their manumission is incompatible with the felicity of our country. ”

“ It is plain that, according to article 4, section 2, clause 3, of the constitution, a person held as a slave in one state, under the laws thereof, who escapes into another, is not to be discharged from slavery by means of any law or regulation existing in the state to which he escapes.
The owner's property being thus secured and protected by the constitution, he has the same right to take possession of his slave when he finds him in the state to which he escapes, that he would have in the state from which he escaped. ”

“ The principle, if adopted, would virtually extend the legislation of a state beyond its own territory and over the citizens of another state, and acts which the policy and habits of one state may lead its legislature to punish as felony, must be considered of that heinous character in another state for certain purposes, while for all other purposes they would be regarded only as violations of moral law. In some of the states of the Union, adultery is made a felony; in another, the being the father of an illegitimate child is made a crime ”

“ The true question is, whether the state of which they are citizens, is under a constitutional obligation to surrender its citizens to be carried to the offended state, and there tried for offences unknown to the laws of their own state. I believe the right to demand, and the reciprocal obligation to surrender fugitives from justice, between sovereign and independent nations, as defined by the law of nations, includes only those cases in which the acts constituting the offence charged are recognized by the universal law of all civilized countries. ”

“ Judge Nelson, who delivered the opinion of the supreme court on the question as to the effect of the act of Congress, and of the statute of New York, says—"To ascertain which is entitled to paramount authority, we must go back to the source of power—the provision of the constitution; that being conceded to be supreme, and any law in pursuance thereof controlling. The first clause is merely prohibitory upon the states, and forbids the enactment of any law or the adoption of any regulation, in the case of a fugitive slave, by which he may be discharged from the service of his master ”

“ A tax may be laid in the meantime, but it is limited, otherwise Congress might lay such a tax as would amount to a prohibition. From the mode of representation and taxation. Congress cannot lay such a tax on slaves as will amount to manumission. Another clause secures us that property which we now possess. At present, if any slave elopes to any of those states where slaves are free, he becomes emancipated by their laws. For the laws of the states are uncharitable to one another in this respect. ”

“ The contrary practice has, indeed, been universal in America; and our practice is so strongly authorized by the civil law, from which this sort of domestic slavery is derived, and is in itself so consistent with the precepts of nature, that we must now consider it as the law of the land."
The jury were left to determine from the evidence, whether the plaintiff's mother was a slave at the time of his birth according to the laws of the state where he was born; and their verdict upon the evidence was for the defendant. ”

“ The act of the legislature of Pennsylvania, for the gradual abolition of slavery, passed on the 1st of March, 1780. By this act every person, who at the time of passing it was a slave, was to remain a slave, unless his owner omitted to register him on or before the 1st day of November ensuing. Children born after the passing of the act, were born free, subject however to a temporary servitude till the age of twenty-eight: and the issue of such children could not be held to any servitude. ”

“ The proceedings are before a magistrate of our own state, presumed to possess a common sympathy with his fellow-citizens; and where, upon the supposition that a freeman is arrested, he may readily procure the evidence of his freedom. If the magistrate should finally err in granting the certificate, the party can still resort to the protection of the national judiciary. The proceedings by which his rights have been invaded being under a law of Congress, the remedy for error or injustice belongs peculiarly to that high tribunal. ”

“ That it shall be auxiliary to the federal government, support and maintain harmony between the United States and foreign powers, and between different states, and prevent a failure of justice in cases to which particular state courts are incompetent. If this judiciary be reviewed as relative to these purposes, I think it will be found that nothing is granted which does not belong to a federal judiciary. Self-defence is its first object. Has not the constitution said, that the states shall not use such and such powers, and given exclusive powers to Congress! ”

“ The idea that the framers of the constitution intended to leave the regulation of this subject to the states, when the provision itself obviously sprung out of their fears of partial and unjust legislation by the states, in respect to it, cannot readily be admitted. It would present an inconsistency of action, and an unskilfulness in the adoption of means for the end in view, too remarkable to have been overlooked by a much less wise body of men. ”

“ A slave is incapable of contracting, so as to impair the right of his master to reclaim him; and if a private individual sue out process, or interfere otherwise with the master's claim, under the pretence of a debt contracted by the slave, such interference will be deemed illegal, and the claimant will have a right of action for any injury he may receive by such obstruction. ”

“ By the laws of Virginia, if any officer of public trust in the commonwealth, or any officer or director of any bank chartered by the commonwealth, shall embezzle, or fraudulently convert to his use, any sum of money, bank note, bill, check, bond or other security or facility placed under his care or management, by virtue of his office, or place, the person so offending is guilty of felony, and, upon conviction thereof, is to be sentenced to imprisonment in the public jail and penitentiary house, for a term not less than three nor more than ten years. ”

“ If the fugitive being once in custody, should of his own accord evade his keeper and escape, or being excited by others to do so, should make the attempt, and an obstruction should be interposed to hinder the reception of the fugitive, the offence would be precisely the same as it would have been, had the same obstruction been interposed to the original seizure or arrest ”

“ The opinion so given by the court in 1796, is stated by Chief Justice Parsons to have been opposed to the practice and usage at that day, but it has constituted a rule of decision ever since. The issue of slaves, although born before the adoption of the constitution, are held to have been born free. [2]
In New York, it was declared by one of the colonial statutes, that all due encouragement ought to be given to the direct importation of slaves. After the revolution, the government of that state determined upon a different policy. ”

“ That things, not persons, are the objects of property. McKean, Chief Justice, delivered his sentiments in an elaborate charge to the jury—in the course of which, he said: "Slavery is of very ancient origin. ”

“ It concerns rights held under the laws, to be enforced within the jurisdiction of states other than those in which the citizens generally interested in them reside, and on a subject too, known deeply to affect the public mind ”

“ On the contrary thereof, this deponent says that he has not at any time abstracted or taken from said bank money, notes and bank bills, other than what has been paid to him by the cashier or other officer of that bank, and upon vouchers or discounted paper entered in course of business upon the books of the bank, and sanctioned by the direction or some part thereof, or committees, or persons duly authorised in the premises. ”