p. 619.

And Curtis added: "Here are eight distinct instances, beginning with
the first Congress, and coming down to the year 1848, in which
Congress has excluded slavery from the territory of the United States;
and six distinct instances in which Congress organized governments of
Territories by which slavery was recognized and continued, beginning
also with the first Congress, and coming down to the year 1822. These
acts were severally signed by seven Presidents of the United States,
beginning with General Washington, and coming regularly down as far as
Mr. John Quincy Adams, thus including all who were in public life when
the Constitution was adopted. If the practical construction of the
Constitution, contemporaneously with its going into effect, by men
intimately acquainted with its history from their personal
participation in framing and adopting it, and continued by them
through a long series of acts of the gravest importance, be entitled
to weight in the judicial mind on a question of construction, it would
seem to be difficult to resist the force of the acts above adverted
to."

[Illustration: SAMUEL NELSON.]

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[1] The declaration in the case of Dred Scott vs. John F.A. Sandford
was filed in the clerk's office of the Circuit Court of the United
States for the district of Missouri on the second day of November,
1853. The trespass complained of is alleged to have occurred on the
first day of January, 1853.--Manuscript Records of the Supreme Court
of the United States.

[2] At the first hearing Montgomery Blair argued the case for Dred
Scott, and Senator Geyer, of Missouri, and ex-Attorney-General Reverdy
Johnson, of Maryland, for the claimant. At the second hearing Mr.
Blair and George Ticknor Curtis, of Boston, argued the case on behalf
of Dred Scott, and Mr. Greyer and Mr. Johnson again made the argument
for the claimant. All of them performed the service without
compensation.

[3] "The court will not decide the question of the Missouri Compromise
line--a majority of the judges being of opinion that it is not
necessary to do so. (This is confidential.) The one engrossing subject
in both Houses of Congress and with all the members is the Presidency;
and upon this everything done and omitted, except the most ordinary
necessities of the country, depends."--[Letter of Justice Curtis to
Mr. Ticknor, April 8, 1856. G.T. Curtis, "Life of B.R. Curtis," Vol.
I., p. 180.]

[4] A striking example may be