34 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 



could not acquire his freedom by being taken into the 

 territory north of the historic line of 36° 30' and that his 

 oldest child born above that line was nevertheless a slave. 1 



We do not question the personal integrity or good faith 

 of these judges. Without being aware of it, they were 

 being carried forward on a mighty current of opinion ; in 

 truth, as in theory, they delivered an impersonal opinion ; 

 they declared the law as they had been trained and educated 

 to apprehend it. The dissenting judges did the same thing ; 

 coming to an exactly opposite conclusion. Perhaps no 

 decision ever pronounced in America, shows more clearly 

 the animus or what Montesqieu calls the spirit of the law ; 

 meaning thereby the natural drift and purpose of the law 

 creating mind in a state or nation. 



It is now only sixteen years since the decision was pro- 

 nounced ; and it stands there in the nineteenth volume of 

 Howard's Reports as obsolete and dead as the slave code 

 of Rome ; the record of it has been blotted out with the 

 blood of a civil war, and on its page has been written the 

 new law of equal rights for all men. 



There are two considerations bearing upon the decision 

 which perhaps ought not to be overlooked ; one relates to 



1 Chief Justice Taney, Md., Leading Opinion. 

 Wayne, Ga., agreeing with him. 



Greer, Pa., " and with Nelson ; prima facie jurisdiction. 



Daniels, Va., 



Campbell, Ala., " (does not touch question of jurisdiction). 



Catron, Tenn., " " on other grounds ; asserts power of con- 



gress on other subjects. 



Nelson, N. Y., " " Hardly touches the power of congress, goes 



upon the laws of Mo., and question of 

 j urisdiction. 



McLean, O., Dissents totally. 

 Curtis, Mass., " 



Conclusion : " that it appears by the record that the plaintiff is not a citi- 

 zen of Missouri, and that the Circuit Court of the United States for that reason 

 had no j urisdiction in the cause and could give no judgment in it. Judg- 

 ment for that reason reversed, with a direction that the suit be dismissed 

 for want of jurisdiction." 



