Fortunate indeed was it for the
public peace that land and religion had been decided--those questions on
which men might reason had been the foundation of judicial
decision--before that which drives all reason, it seems, from the mind
of man, came to be presented the question whether Cuffee should be kept
in his normal condition or not; the question whether the Congress of the
United States could decide what might or might not be property in a
Territory--the case being that of an officer of the army sent into a
Territory to perform his public duty, having taken with him his negro
slave. The court, however, in giving their decision in this case--or
their opinion, if it suits gentlemen better--have gone into the question
with such clearness, such precision, and such amplitude, that it will
relieve me from the necessity of arguing it any further than to make a
reference to some sentences contained in that opinion. And here let me
say, I can not see how those who agreed on a former occasion that the
constitutional right of the slaveholder to take his property into the
Territory--the constitutional power of the Congress and the
constitutional power of the Territory to legislate upon that
subject--should be a judicial question, can now attempt to escape the
operation of an opinion which covers the exact political question which,
it was known beforehand, the Court would be called upon to decide.
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