The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 33 



question as to the jurisdiction of the United States Circuit 

 Court, was argued in St Louis in April, 1854, while the 

 question of the repeal of the Missouri compromise was 

 pending before congress. 



On review the cause was twice argued. It was capable of 

 being decided on the ground that the courts of the United 

 States had no jurisdiction ; or on the ground that the laws of 

 Missouri, from which state the appeal came, were control- 

 ling and conclusive. But because one of the parties plaint- 

 iff was born above the line of 36° 30' it seemed to give the 

 opportunity to discuss and decide on the validity of the 

 act of congress prohibiting slavery north of that line, and 

 consequently upon the right to hold slaves in all the terri- 

 tories of the union. 



The court had no sympathy with the enslaved people. 

 A majority of the judges came forward, beyond the issues 

 presented, to uphold and maintain the institution in its 

 utmost rigor. They decided first on the question of juris- 

 diction, that a negro man could not be a citizen, and there- 

 fore could n ot bring a suit in the United States Circuit Court 

 against the citizen of another state ;. that he could not be 

 treated as a citizen because he was regarded by the framers 

 of the constitution as having no rights, and no lot or part 

 in the body of the people ; not even so good a status as a 

 private corporation, a mere creature of the law has ; and 

 second, that while congress may organize and make all 

 needful rules and laws for the government of a territory, 

 it could not exclude slavery or legally establish the famous 

 Missouri compromise of 1820 ; and that the people of a 

 territory were equally without power to act upon the sub- 

 ject, because the constitution carried or recognized the in- 

 stitution as already existing in all the territories. From 

 such a skillful combination of negative conclusions, with 

 one dariug affirmative, the inference was easy that Scott 



Trans. viii.~] 5 



