o a slaveholding country and procured her; this was
his voluntary act, done without any other reason than that of his
convenience; and he and those claiming under him must be holden to
abide the consequences of introducing slavery both in Missouri
Territory and Michigan, contrary to law; and on that ground Rachel was
declared to be entitled to freedom."

In answer to the argument that, as an officer of the army, the master
had a right to take his slave into free territory, the court said no
authority of law or the Government compelled him to keep the plaintiff
there as a slave.

"Shall it be said, that because an officer of the army owns slaves in
Virginia, that when, as officer and soldier, he is required to take
the command of a fort in the non-slaveholding States or Territories,
he thereby has a right to take with him as many slaves as will suit
his interests or convenience? It surely cannot be law. If this be
true, the court say, then it is also true that the convenience or
supposed convenience of the officer repeals, as to him and others who
have the same character, the ordinance and the act of 1821, admitting
Missouri into the Union, and also the prohibition of the several laws
and Constitutions of the non-slaveholding States."

In Wilson _v._ Melvin, (4 Missouri R., 592,) it appeared the defendant
left Tennessee with an intention of residing in Illinois, taking his
negroes with him. After a month's stay in Illinois, he took his
negroes to St. Louis, and hired them, then returned to Illinois. On
these facts, the inferior court instructed the jury that the defendant
was a sojourner in Illinois. This the Supreme Court held was error,
and the judgment was reversed.

The case of Dred Scott _v._ Emerson (15 Missouri R., 682, March term,
1852) will now be stated. This case involved the identical question
before us, Emerson having, since the hearing, sold the plaintiff to
Sandford, the defendant.

Two of the judges ruled the case, the Chief Justice dissenting. It
cannot be improper to state the grounds of the opinion of the court,
and of the dissent.

The court say: "Cases of this kind are not strangers in our court.
Persons have been frequently here adjudged to be entitled to their
freedom, on the ground that their masters held them in slavery in
Territories or States in which that institution is prohibited. From
the first case decided in our court, it might be inferred that this
result was brought about by a pr