No man was bound to show
title to his negro slave. The slave was bound to show manumission under
which he had acquired his freedom, by the common law of every colony.
Why, sir, can any man doubt, is there a gentleman here, even the Senator
from Maine, who doubts that if, after the Revolution, the different
States of this Union had not passed laws upon the subject to abolish
slavery, to subvert this common law of the continent, every one of these
States would be slave States yet? How came they free States? Did not
they have this institution of slavery imprinted upon them by the power
of the mother country? How did they get rid of it? All, all must admit
that they had to pass positive acts of legislation to accomplish this
purpose. Without that legislation they would still be slave States.
What, then, becomes of the pretext that slavery only exists in those
States where it was established by positive legislation, that it has
no inherent vitality out of those States, and that slaves are not
considered as property by the Constitution of the United States?
When the delegates of the several colonies which had thus asserted their
independence of the British Crown met in convention, the decision of
Lord Mansfield in the Sommersett case was recent, was known to all.
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