United States. Congress

“ I have examined a prospectus of an edition of the Laws of the United States, which you propose to publish, and I think it must meet the entire approbation of every one who feels the least interest in a work of this kind. The labour which would be saved by it to all executive and judicial officers, as well as to gentlemen of the legal profession, and members of Congress, is beyond calculation. ”

“ The owner of a fugitive slave has the same right to seize and to take him in a state to which he has escaped or fled, that he had in the state from which he escaped; and it is well known that this right to seize or recapture is universally acknowledged in all the slaveholding states. The court have not the slightest hesitation in holding, that under and in virtue of the constitution, the owner of the slave is clothed with authority in every state of the Union, to seize and recapture his slave ”

“ In the 8th section of the 1st article of the constitution of the United States, it is declared that Congress shall have power “to promote the progress of the useful arts by securing for a limited time to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their writings and inventions.” The word “secure,” as used in the constitution, could not mean the protection of an acknowledged legal right. It refers to inventors as well as authors, and it has never been pretended by any one, either in this country or in England, that an inventor has a perpetual right at common law, to sell the thing invented. ”

“ No direct suit can be maintained against the United States. But when an action is brought by the United States, to recover money in the hands of a party, who has legal claim against them for costs, it would be a very rigid principle to deny to him the right of setting up such claim in a court of justice, and turn him round to an application to Congress. ”

“ The power of Congress to exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatever, within the District of Columbia, includes the power of taxing it, Ibid.
The authority of Congress to lay and collect taxes, does not interfere with the power of the States to tax for the support of their own governments; nor is the exercise of that power by the States, an exercise of any portion of the power that is granted to the United States. ”

“ Where one party in a cause wishes the production of papers supposed to be in the possession of the other, he must give notice to produce them: if not produced, he may give inferior evidence of their contents. But if it is his intention to nonsuit the plaintiff, or if the plaintiff requiring the papers means to obtain a judgment by default, under the 15th section of the judicial act, he is bound to give the opposite party notice that he means to move the court for an order upon him to produce the papers, or on a failure so to do, to award a nonsuit or judgment, as the case may be. ”

“ He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. ”

“ The constitution declares that the fugitive slave shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom service or labour may be due. It is exceedingly difficult, if not impracticable, to read this language, and not to feel that it contemplated some further remedial redress than that which might be administered at the hand of the owner himself. “A claim” is to be made. Ibid.
“A claim” in a just juridical sense, is a demand of some matter as of right, made by one person upon another to do or to forbear to do some act or thing as a matter of duty. ”

“ We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. ”

“ The power to regulate commerce, includes the power to regulate navigation, as connected with the commerce with foreign nations and among the States. It does not stop at the mere boundary line of a State, nor is it coniined to acts done on the waters, or in the necessary course of the navigation thereof. It extends to such acts done on the land, which interfere with, obstruct, or prevent the due exercise of the powers to regulate commerce and navigation with foreign nations, and among the States. ”

“ The commanders of all ships and vessels, belonging to the United States, are strictly required to show in themselves a good example of honour and virtue to their officers and men, and to be very vigilant in inspecting the behaviour of all such as are under them, and to discountenance and suppress all dissolute, immoral, and disorderly practices, and also such as are contrary to the rules of discipline and obedience, and to correct those who are guilty of the same, according to the usage of the sea service. ”

“ The right of visitation and search does not exist in time of peace. A vessel engaged in the slave trade in time of peace, even if belonging to a nation which has prohibited the trade, cannot, for that cause alone, be seized on the high seas, and brought in for adjudication in the courts of another country. ”

“ That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. ”

“ No commander, for any one offence, shall inflict any punishment upon a seamen or marine beyond twelve lashes upon his bare back with a cat of nine tails, and no other cat shall be made use of on board any ship of war, or other vessel belonging to the United States—if the fault shall deserve a greater punishment, he is to apply to the Secretary of the Navy, the commander in chief of the navy, or the commander of a squadron, in order to the trying of him by a court martial ”

“ But if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of circumstances judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed and equipped in the same manner as the quota of each State, unless the legislature of such State shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spread out in the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared. ”

“ Every person guilty of mutiny, desertion or disobedience to his superior officer on shore, acting in the proper line of his duty, shall be tried by a court martial, and suffer the like punishment for every such offence, as if the same had been committed at sea, on board any ship or vessel of war in the service of the United States. ”