ing owned as property--without any reference to
the circumstances of his being compelled to labor, or of his being
permitted to live in idleness, or of his being too young, or too old, or
too sick to labor.

If "service or labor" were either a test, or a necessary attendant of
slavery, that test would of itself abolish slavery; because all slaves,
before they can render "service or labor," must have passed through the
period of infancy, when they could render neither service nor labor, and
when, therefore, according to this test, they were free. And if they
were free in infancy, they could not be subsequently enslaved.

3. "Held to service or labor in one state, _under the laws thereof_."

The "_laws_" take no note of the fact whether a slave "labors," or not.
They recognize no obligation, on his part, to labor. They will enforce
no "_claim_" of a master, upon his slave, for "service or labor." If the
slave refuse to labor, the law will not interfere to compel him. The law
simply recognizes the master's _right of property_ in the slave--just as
it recognizes his right of property in a horse. Having done that, it
leaves the master to compel the slave, if he please, and if he can--as
he would compel a horse--to labor. If the master do not please, or be
not able, to compel the slave to labor, the law takes no more cognizance
of the case than it does of the conduct of a refractory horse. In short,
it recognizes no obligation, on the part of the slave, to labor, if he
can avoid doing so. It recognizes no "_claim_," on the part of the
master, upon his slave, for "services or labor," as "_due_" from the
latter to the former.

4. Neither "service" nor "labor" is necessarily slavery; and not being
necessarily slavery, the words cannot, in this case, be strained beyond
their necessary meaning, to make them sanction a wrong. The law will
not allow words to be strained a hair's breadth beyond their _necessary_
meaning, to make them authorize a wrong. _The stretching, if there be
any, must always be towards the right._ The words "service or labor" do
not necessarily, nor in their common acceptation, so much as suggest the
idea of slavery--that is, they do not suggest the idea of the laborer or
servant being the property of the person for whom he labors. An indented
apprentice serves and labors for another. He is "_held_" to do so, under
a contract, and for a consideration, that are recognized, by the laws,
as legitimate, and cons