rms.

3. Every citizen has a right to take with him into the Territory any
article of property which the Constitution of the United States
recognizes as property.

4. The Constitution of the United States recognizes slaves as property,
and pledges the Federal Government to protect it. And Congress cannot
exercise any more authority over property of that description than it
may constitutionally exercise over property of any other kind.

5. The act of Congress, therefore, prohibiting a citizen of the United
States from taking with him his slaves when he removes to the Territory
in question to reside, is an exercise of authority over private property
which is not warranted by the Constitution--and the removal of the
plaintiff, by his owner, to that Territory, gave him no title to
freedom.

V.

1. The plaintiff himself acquired no title to freedom by being taken, by
his owner, to Rock Island, in Illinois, and brought back to Missouri.
This court has heretofore decided that the _status_ or condition of a
person of African descent depended on the laws of the State in which he
resided.

2. It has been settled by the decisions of the highest court in
Missouri, that by the laws of that State, a slave does not become
entitled to his freedom, where the owner takes him to reside in a State
where slavery is not permitted, and afterwards brings him back to
Missouri.

Conclusion. It follows that it is apparent upon the record that the
court below erred in its judgment on the plea in abatement, and also
erred in giving judgment for the defendant, when the exception shows
that the plaintiff was not a citizen of the United States. And as the
Circuit Court had no jurisdiction, either in the case stated in the plea
in abatement, or in the one stated in the exception, its judgment in
favor of the defendant is erroneous, and must be reversed.

THE

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.

BY

REV. CHARLES HODGE, D.D.

OF NEW JERSEY.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.

NOTE.--We have affixed, by way of comment to "the
decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott
case," the following able paper from the pen of
Prof. Hodge. It lucidly explains the source and
sanction of Civil Government, and deduces
therefrom the duties and responsibilities of the
governed.--ED.

* * * * *

Alleged Immorality of the Law answered--Duty of