the kindred of a natural between the north south was utterly unknown to the men of the revolution before the declaration of independence but during the intense which preceded it and distracted public attention from everything else lord had rendered his judgment from the king s bench which slavery from england and ought to have destroyed it in the as well the in this famous case was james a native of africa carried to virginia as a slave taken thence by his master to england and there in to resist the claim his master to hie services and assert his right to liberty in the first recorded case the of modern in england it was held that being usually bought and sold among merchants as and � se being there might be a property in sufficient to maintain but this waa by chief justice from the king a bench ruling that so soon as a lands in england he is free and again ui that there is no such thing as a slave by the law of england this judgment proving ex troublesome to and merchants from slave holding colonies mother country with their servants the concerned in the american trade in pro cured from and the attorney general and of the grown a written opinion that elsewhere might be held as slaves in england and that even was no bar to the matter s claim this opinion was in held lo be sound law by now lord sitting as judge on the ground that if the ruling of lord were it would slavery in or virginia as well as in england british law being fat each thus the stood until lord in s case reversed it with evident v and after having vainly endeavored to bring about an accommodation between parties when delay would serve no and a judgment must be rendered declared it in these memorable words we cannot direct the law the law the state of is of such a nature that h � � incapable of on reasons moral or political but only by positive law which force long after the reasons and time whence it was created is the memory it ll so odious that nothing can be to support u bet law whatever therefore follow f om the decision i cannot say that this allowed or approved by the law of england and fore the black must be discharged thb for the natural if not effect of this decision on slavery in these colonies had their connection with the mother country been is obvious under the the disposition or management of to the thirteen recent now as independent states early became a subject of solicitude and of among those states and in bv the terms of their of the colonies bad an indefinite extension and were only limited by the power of the many of these w th each same territory being included within the limits of two or e totally distinct colonies as the expenses of the struggle began to bear on the resources of the states it was keenly felt by some that their share in the of the expected triumph would be l� m than that of others new york virginia north and laid claim to spacious of their proper boundaries while new save in island new and south possessed no such boasted resources meet the war debts constantly tbey urged therefore with obvious justice that these advantages ought to be and all the lands included within the limits of the union but outside of the proper and natural boundaries of the several states should be to and held by in trust for the common benefit of all the states and proceeds employed in satisfaction of the debts and of the this reasonable was ultimately but with some to the continental under the articles of ck assembled at philadelphia but next day to md the house was soon left without a and so continued most of the time � of course doing no business � till the ist of march when the from virginia in df instructions from the of that signed the deed of to the of her claims to of the river new t and had already made similar to the of their respective claims to territory westward of their present limits appointed messrs of virginia chase of and of island a select committee to report a plan of gk for the western territory this plan drawn up by thomas provided for the government of ill the western territory including that portion which had not yet been but which it was reasonably expected ik be surrendered to the by uie s of north and and which now forms the states of and as well as that which had already by the more the report of the committee was in the following words the that the or to he by individual to the united states the same have been purchased of the indian inhabitants and offered for sale by the united states � hall be formed into additional states bounded in the following manner as nearly as such will admit that is to say and by of latitude so that each state shall comprehend from to north two degrees of latitude beginning to count from tiie completion of thirty one degrees north ot the then southern boundary of the u s but any of the forty seventh degree make of the state below and and they shall be bounded those on the id by that river on one side and the of the lowest point of the of we on the other and those adjoining op the east by the same on their western side and on their eastern by the of the western cape of the mouth of the great and the territory eastward of this la t between the lake and shall be one state that the within the territory so to be purchased and offered for sale 