Peter Vivian Daniel

“ They are intended to give an accumulative remedy to persons able to contract, and who by deed acquire rights which equity will protect, with the power to prosecute those rights. But by the laws of this State, a negro, so long as he is a slave, can have no rights adverse to those of his master; he can neither sue nor be sued, nor can be make any contract or acquire any rights under a deed which a court of law or equity can enforce. ”

“ The only facts which can be taken into consideration, in this case, are those which appear in the record. Those facts afford no ground for the assumption, on the other side, that the deed of manumission, now in controversy, was retained in the possession of the grantor until the time of his death, and there is, consequently, no foundation for the agreement that has been advanced,-that although this deed was, on the face of it, to take effect in presenti, yet it was, as matter of fact, to take effect in futuro. ”

“ By the statute of Maryland, passed in 1715, cap. 44, § 22, it is enacted,-'That all negroes, and other slaves then imported, and their children, then born or thereafter to be born, shall be slaves for life.' Upon examining the legislation of Maryland, from the period of the law of 1715, a variety of enactments will be seen, showing the policy of this State in the government of her slave population; and, as entering essentially into that policy, must be considered the several regulations under which she has permitted manumission, either by deed or by will. ”

“ Gaither, and in the subsequent cases, are nothing more than the repeated expositions of a settled policy or rule of interpretation of the Maryland statutes, viz. that the conditions prescribed by them must be strictly fulfilled; that without such fulfilment any pretended instrument of manumission must be treated as a nullity, and can impart no rights, can give no standing in court, either at law or in equity. We think then that this is a question of Maryland law, which has been settled by the courts of Maryland, and should not now be disturbed ”

“ The statutes of Maryland in being at the cession of the District of Columbia were adopted as the laws of the county of Washington, to be there enforced until altered by authority of Congress, and the rights of person and of property vested or existing under those laws, and all interpretations of those laws by the supreme tribunal of Maryland, became in like manner the rules of right within the same county. This case, too, is one of a right sought to be maintained under a Maryland statute, a right which seeks to lay its foundation in the terms of that statute, and no where else. ”

“ But admitting this position fully, still we must also admit that the courts of the United States would feel great respect for the decisions of the State courts upon questions essentially connected with the general internal policy of the State, nay, would yield to those opinions upon matters of doubtful construction, or wherever well ascertained and paramount obligations did not forbid such an acquiescence. ”

“ This omission is admitted in the petition for freedom, and is made out by the proofs upon which the instruction prayed by the defendant in the courts below was asked and refused, and it remains to be considered how far such omission operated to destroy all foundation of the right sought to be asserted in this case. ”