The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-10-04

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so far as those rights have been sur.
rendered by the persons themselves, OF
Justly forfeited or restrained by law.
! Indeed, the term in law as in com
mon parlance, is always used in con-
tradistinction to property. Thus,
Blackstone, in his Commentaries, de-
votes one of the four volumes of that
work, to consideration of the Rights
of Persons" and another of them, to
a consideration of the "Rights Of
Things" and throughout both those
volumes, and more particularly and at
length, in his chapter on " Master and
Servant" Vol. l, page 1927 shows the
propriety of using the terms " Person"
and "Property" in contradistinction
to each other, by legal demonstration
that there can never be any such thing
as the possession by one human being
of property in the person of another.
He further demonstrates that the only
legal right master can have in respect
to slave, is right to his services; that
he may have by the local law of the
slave country or State, property right
in his labor and services similar to the
property right of parent in the labor
and services of bis minor child or of a
master, in those of his indentured ap-
prentice; but nothing more.
The Common Law as embodied in
Blackstone's Commentaries, was the
law of the United States at the time of
the adoption of the Constitution and
the Constitution virtually adopts and, so
to speak, crystal1izes for such time as
the Constitution itself shall endure, all
the principles of the Common Law not
repugnant to itself.
Thus, the provision of the Constitu-
ton that "The privileges of the writ
of Ha6eas Co,pa1s shall not be suspen-
ded unless when, in eases of rebellion
or invasion, the public safety may re-
quire it," substantially adopts and en-
bodies in itself, the common law pro-
visions which define and limit that
"privilege;" so that whatever extent
that privilege" had at common law at
the time Of the adoption of the Consti-
tuition, it has under the Constitution
and must have, without abatement or
qualification, so long as the Constitu-
tionalprovision shall unchanged.
So, as the Constitution contains NO
definition of the terms " Person" and
"Property;" as the trainers of it, used,
and by using, adopted those terms as
they are used in the common law, they
took them with their long established
common law definitions and signifca-
ton.
The same is true of all the common
law words and phrases used in the Con-
stitution. Thus, the word "Person"
in the Common Law, means human
being (called a natural person,'') or
corporation of human beings, called
San artificial person )" whilst the word
property" means something which
may be possessed and which is not
human being. Of course, these words
have precisely the same Specifications
in the Federal Constitution.
So, the phrase "person held to SER
vice or labor under the laws" means
in the constitution precisely what it
does in the common law; and that is, a
person in the situation of a minor, ap-
prentice, slave or married aconaa,a, the
latter of whom is by the common law,
just as fully und firmly " held to SER
vice or labor'' to her husband, as
cotton plantation slave to his master;
and in case the husband be deprived
of her services or labor" by the
wrong or carelessness of another, the
common law gives him not only the
same remedy, but identically the same
form of remedy, as it gives to mas
ter similarly deprived of the service
and labor of his slave. 1t is an action
to recover damages for the wrong or
carelessness by which the husband or
master lost the services of the wife or
slaVe. The same action is brought by
a parent or master for the similar loss
of the services of the minor child or
apprentice.
Married women, minor children and
apprentices are thus held to "service
or labor" to the husbands, parents and
masters, in every state of the Union,
"under the laws thereof" as fully as
slaves to their masters, in the slave
states. Neither the constitution nor
any of the several fugitive acts of Con-
gress, makes any distinction between
slaves and thhse other classes of per-
sons. =
N II Il