Joseph McKenna

“ It is urged that the negroes became free by the emancipation proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and acquired thereby all the rights of freedmen. That may be granted, but what is its consequence? Certainly not to invest the freedmen with any rights in the property, or to participate in the affairs, of their former owners. For such rights we must look to the treaty and subsequent legislation and, to a certain extent, to the act which gave jurisdiction of this suit to the court of claims. ”

“ We get no aid from the emancipation proclamation or the 13th Amendment. Prominent, of course, in the inquiry is the act of adoption passed by the Chickasaw legislature in 1873. It responded, in the main, to the treaty of 1866, and if it had force in 1894, when it was approved by Congress, the adoption of the freedmen was made complete. Appellants so contend. They say the act of adoption 'was complete in itself and a full exercise of the power possessed by that (Chickasaw) legislature.' And, further, if the act were subject to repeal, it was not repealed. ”