berate
consideration. It has accordingly been again argued by counsel, and
considered by the court; and I now proceed to deliver its opinion.

There are two leading questions presented by the record:

1. Had the Circuit Court of the United States jurisdiction to hear and
determine the case between these parties? And

2. If it had jurisdiction, is the judgment it has given erroneous or
not?

The plaintiff in error, who was also the plaintiff in the court below,
was, with his wife and children, held as slaves by the defendant, in the
State of Missouri; and he brought this action in the Circuit Court of
the United States for that district, to assert the title of himself and
his family to freedom.

The declaration is in the form usually adopted in that State to try
questions of this description, and contains the averment necessary to
give the court jurisdiction; that he and the defendant are citizens of
different States; that is, that he is a citizen of Missouri, and the
defendant a citizen of New York.

The defendant pleaded in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court,
that the plaintiff was not a citizen of the State of Missouri, as
alleged in his declaration, being a negro of African descent, whose
ancestors were of pure African blood, and who were brought into this
country and sold as slaves.

To this plea the plaintiff demurred, and the defendant joined in
demurrer. The court overruled the plea, and gave judgment that the
defendant should answer over. And he therefore put in sundry pleas in
bar, upon which issues were joined; and at the trial the verdict and
judgment were in his favor. Whereupon the plaintiff brought this writ of
error.

Before we speak of the pleas in bar, it will be proper to dispose of the
questions which have arisen on the plea in abatement.

That plea denies the right of the plaintiff to sue in a court of the
United States, for the reasons therein stated.

If the question raised by it is legally before us, and the court should
be of opinion that the facts stated in it disqualify the plaintiff from
becoming a citizen, in the sense in which that word is used in the
Constitution of the United States, then the judgment of the Circuit
Court is erroneous and must be reversed.

It is suggested, however, that this plea is not before us; and that as
the judgment in the court below on this plea was in favor of the
plaintiff, he does not seek to reverse it, or bring it before the court
for r