Robert Trimble

“ It would, indeed, be extraordinary, if the marshal, who is the servant of the government, and holds possession of the Africans merely by its authority, could obstruct the operations of the government by a claim for compensation for his services. The laws give the marshal no lien on the Africans, and we can discover no principle with will justify the Court in creating a lien, in effect, by its decree. ”

“ The Africans to be delivered to the United States, are neither slaves in contemplation of law, nor prisoners of war, nor persons charged with crimes. The compensations allowed by the laws of the State to sheriffs and jailors, in these cases, do not, therefore, furnish any positive rule of law or right, as to the compensation which ought to be allowed the marshal in the peculiar circumstances attending these Africans. ”

“ The Court decreed that the Portuguese claimant should not be made liable for costs, or any proportion of the expenses and charges of the marshal for maintaining, &c. the Africans; and being of opinion that thirty-nine of the Africans were sufficiently identified by proof, as being the property, of the Spanish claimants, directed the thirty-nine Africans, so identified, to be delivered to the Spanish claimants, upon their paying a proportion of the costs and expenses reported by the registrar, in the ratio of the number of Africans delivered, to the whole number ”