this plea which shows or conduces to show an
inability in the plaintiff to sue in the Circuit Court. It does not
allege that the plaintiff had his domicil in any other State, nor that
he is not a free man in Missouri. He is averred to have had a negro
ancestry, but this does not show that he is not a citizen of Missouri,
within the meaning of the act of Congress authorizing him to sue in
the Circuit Court. It has never been held necessary, to constitute a
citizen within the act, that he should have the qualifications of an
elector. Females and minors may sue in the Federal courts, and so may
any individual who has a permanent domicil in the State under whose
laws his rights are protected, and to which he owes allegiance.

Being born under our Constitution and laws, no naturalization is
required, as one of foreign birth, to make him a citizen. The most
general and appropriate definition of the term citizen is "a freeman."
Being a freeman, and having his domicil in a State different from that
of the defendant, he is a citizen within the act of Congress, and the
courts of the Union are open to him.

It has often been held, that the jurisdiction, as regards parties, can
only be exercised between citizens of different States, and that a
mere residence is not sufficient; but this has been said to
distinguish a temporary from a permanent residence.

To constitute a good plea to the jurisdiction, it must negative those
qualities and rights which enable an individual to sue in the Federal
courts. This has not been done; and on this ground the plea was
defective, and the demurrer was properly sustained. No implication can
aid a plea in abatement or in bar; it must be complete in itself; the
facts stated, if true, must abate or bar the right of the plaintiff to
sue. This is not the character of the above plea. The facts stated, if
admitted, are not inconsistent with other facts, which may be
presumed, and which bring the plaintiff within the act of Congress.

The pleader has not the boldness to allege that this plaintiff is a
slave, as that would assume against him the matter in controversy, and
embrace the entire merits of the case in a plea to the jurisdiction.
But beyond the facts set out in the plea, the court, to sustain it,
must assume the plaintiff to be a slave, which is decisive on the
merits. This is a short and an effectual mode of deciding the cause;
but I am yet to learn that it is sanctioned by any known rule of