, the Circuit Court of the United States for Missouri,
in which this suit was afterwards brought, followed the decision of
the State court, and rendered a like judgment against the plaintiff.

The argument against these decisions is, that the laws of Illinois,
forbidding slavery within her territory, had the effect to set the
slave free while residing in that State, and to impress upon him the
condition and status of a freeman; and that, by force of these laws,
this status and condition accompanied him on his return to the slave
State, and of consequence he could not be there held as a slave.

This question has been examined in the courts of several of the
slaveholding States, and different opinions expressed and conclusions
arrived at. We shall hereafter refer to some of them, and to the
principles upon which they are founded. Our opinion is, that the
question is one which belongs to each State to decide for itself,
either by its Legislature or courts of justice; and hence, in respect
to the case before us, to the State of Missouri--a question
exclusively of Missouri law, and which, when determined by that State,
it is the duty of the Federal courts to follow it. In other words,
except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of
the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of
slavery within its jurisdiction.

As a practical illustration of the principle, we may refer to the
legislation of the free States in abolishing slavery, and prohibiting
its introduction into their territories. Confessedly, except as
restrained by the Federal Constitution, they exercised, and
rightfully, complete and absolute power over the subject. Upon what
principle, then, can it be denied to the State of Missouri? The power
flows from the sovereign character of the States of this Union;
sovereign, not merely as respects the Federal Government--except as
they have consented to its limitation--but sovereign as respects each
other. Whether, therefore, the State of Missouri will recognise or
give effect to the laws of Illinois within her territories on the
subject of slavery, is a question for her to determine. Nor is there
any constitutional power in this Government that can rightfully
control her.

Every State or nation possesses an exclusive sovereignty and
jurisdiction within her own territory; and, her laws affect and bind
all property and persons residing within it. It may regulate the
manner and