it is denied by the
defendant in the manner required by the rules of pleading; and the
fact upon which the denial is based is admitted by the demurrer. And,
if the plea and demurrer, and judgment of the court below upon it, are
before us upon this record, the question to be decided is, whether the
facts stated in the plea are sufficient to show that the plaintiff is
not entitled to sue as a citizen in a court of the United States.

We think they are before us. The plea in abatement and the judgment of
the court upon it, are a part of the judicial proceedings in the
Circuit Court, and are there recorded as such; and a writ of error
always brings up to the superior court the whole record of the
proceedings in the court below. And in the case of the United States
_v._ Smith, (11 Wheat., 172,) this court said, that the case being
brought up by writ of error, the whole record was under the
consideration of this court. And this being the case in the present
instance, the plea in abatement is necessarily under consideration;
and it becomes, therefore, our duty to decide whether the facts stated
in the plea are or are not sufficient to show that the plaintiff is
not entitled to sue as a citizen in a court of the United States.

This is certainly a very serious question, and one that now for the
first time has been brought for decision before this court. But it is
brought here by those who have a right to bring it, and it is our duty
to meet it and decide it.

The question is simply this: Can a negro, whose ancestors were
imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the
political community formed and brought into existence by the
Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all
the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guarantied by that
instrument to the citizen? One of which rights is the privilege of
suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the
Constitution.

It will be observed, that the plea applies to that class of persons
only whose ancestors were negroes of the African race, and imported
into this country, and sold and held as slaves. The only matter in
issue before the court, therefore, is, whether the descendants of such
slaves, when they shall be emancipated, or who are born of parents who
had become free before their birth, are citizens of a State, in the
sense in which the word citizen is used in the Constitution of the
United States. And this