here was an
intention to acquire another. (11 L. and Eq., 6; 6 Exch., 217; 6 M.
and W., 511; 2 Curt. Ecc. R., 368.)

The cases first cited deny the authority of a foreign law to dissolve
relations which have been legally contracted in the State where the
parties are, and have their actual domicil--relations which were never
questioned during their absence from that State--relations which are
consistent with the native capacity and condition of the respective
parties, and with the policy of the State where they reside; but which
relations were inconsistent with the policy or laws of the State or
Territory within which they had been for a time, and from which they
had returned, with these relations undisturbed. It is upon the
assumption, that the law of Illinois or Minnesota was indelibly
impressed upon the slave, and its consequences carried into Missouri,
that the claim of the plaintiff depends. The importance of the case
entitles the doctrine on which it rests to a careful examination.

It will be conceded, that in countries where no law or regulation
prevails, opposed to the existence and consequences of slavery,
persons who are born in that condition in a foreign State would not be
liberated by the accident of their introgression. The relation of
domestic slavery is recognised in the law of nations, and the
interference of the authorities of one State with the rights of a
master belonging to another, without a valid cause, is a violation of
that law. (Wheat. Law of Na., 724; 5 Stats. at Large, 601; Calh. Sp.,
378; Reports of the Com. U.S. and G.B., 187, 238, 241.)

The public law of Europe formerly permitted a master to reclaim his
bondsman, within a limited period, wherever he could find him, and one
of the capitularies of Charlemagne abolishes the rule of prescription.
He directs, "that wheresoever, within the bounds of Italy, either the
runaway slave of the king, or of the church, or of any other man,
shall be found by his master, he shall be restored without any bar or
prescription of years; yet upon the provision that the master be a
Frank or German, or of any other nation (foreign;) but if he be a
Lombard or a Roman, he shall acquire or receive his slaves by that law
which has been established from ancient times among them." Without
referring for precedents abroad, or to the colonial history, for
similar instances, the history of the Confederation and Union affords
evidence to attest the existence of this an