my own authority. I would not be so presumptuous. The Senator
from Maine (Mr. Fessenden) need not smile at my statement. I will give
him higher authority than anything I can dare assert. I say that in 1771
Lord Mansfield subverted the common law of England in the Sommersett
case, and decided, not that a slave carried to England from the West
Indies by his master thereby became free, but that by the law of
England, if the slave resisted the master, there was no remedy by which
the master could exercise his control; that the colonial legislation
which afforded the master means of controlling his property had no
authority in England, and that England by her laws had provided no
substitute for that authority. That was what Lord Mansfield decided.
I say this was judicial legislation. I say it subverted the entire
previous jurisprudence of Great Britain. I have just adverted to the
authorities for that position. Lord Mansfield felt it. The case was
argued before him over and over again, and he begged the parties to
compromise. They said they would not. "Why," said he, "I have known
six of these cases already, and in five out of the six there was a
compromise; you had better compromise this matter"; but the parties said
no, they would stand on the law; and then, after holding the case up
two terms, Lord Mansfield mustered up courage to say just what I have
asserted to be his decision; that there was no law in England affording
the master control over his slave; and that therefore the master's
putting him on board of a vessel in irons, being unsupported by
authority derived from English law, and the colonial law not being in
force in England, he would discharge the slave from custody on _habeas
corpus_, and leave the master to his remedy as best he could find one.

Mr. Fessenden. Decided so unwillingly.

Mr. Benjamin. The gentleman is right--very unwillingly. He was driven
to the decision by the paramount power which is now perverting the
principles, and obscuring the judgment of the people of the North; and
of which I must say there is no more striking example to be found than
its effect on the clear and logical intellect of my friend from Maine.

Mr. President, I make these charges in relation to that judgment,
because in them I am supported by an intellect greater than Mansfield's;
by a judge of resplendent genius and consummate learning; one who, in
all questions of international law, on all subjects not dependent upon
th