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Show 286 DgSPOTIS!\l man-with lhc exception of Judge McLean,. who wa~ appoinlC'd for political convenience to get hm_l out o[ an oHice which it was desired to fill otherwise-has been raised to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United StatC's, t•xccpt under similar ci~cu~stances; at least the only other po~sibl? exception JS Ju~ge Grier, the !;ucccssor. of Baldw1111 whos~ re~utatJOI~, previous to his apponltmeut.,-tl~~ugb, like h1s predc· cessor, a man of decided legal abd1ty,-was so ~1erely local that I am not at present able to spec1fy the parti~ular 8ervices, if any, which he had rendered to the slave power. But that th_c man ~va::; well known, his violence, I may even sa¥ h1s fcro.c1ty, on the bench, in behalf of the law of 18v0, sufficiently shows. Prior to the elevation of the:;e latte~ se~v!Ccah.Ie judges, and while 'l,hompson ?"nd Baldwtn std.! sa.t Ill the Supreme Court, the question of the. consttlutJ?nality of the act of 1793, a?d of the true mterpretat~on aud efiCct of the clause ll1 the F~~eral constJtut_IOn respecting the dclivcrin~ up of fugttJvcs from serviCe, came before that court m the celebrated case, alrcm_ly repeatedly rC'fcrrcd to, of Prigg v. Penn~yl~anw. Prign, a citizen of l\larylanU, had been I~H.IJCtcd, uncle~ the Pennsylvania act of 1826, for carrywg out of that state, without process or warrant, a_ negro woman whom he claimed as his slave, and wtth her several of her children, one of which, born mor~ than a year after the mother's arrival in Pennsylvama, ac· cordin(7 to a decision of the Supreme Court of Pcnn~Ylvania already citt·d, was born a free persou. After a great deal of controvcr!:iy between the .t~vo states Prim-r having been demanded as a fugitive from Lhe j~~ticc of Pennsylvania, and ~he govrr.n,or of :Maryland, as usual in such cases, refuswg t? dcil,~r him up by an arrangement of the state legt~daturcs the quc~lion of the validity of the law of Pcnnsyl· vania was brought before the Supreme Court ~f the United States on an agreed statement of facts, 1~1 the form of a special verdict, in which it was. adm~ttcdJ among other things, that t.hc woman earned oJl ha IN AMERICA. 287 b<'en Prig~s slave, and had escaped from him into Pcnnsylvanm, and also that one of the c-hildren carried ofl' with her had bPen born in Penn!'lylvunia more than a year after her arrival tlwrc. . All the jndge~ agreed that Prigg was entitled to be discharged from the indictment· but in the view which they took of the law of th~ case, they difli,cd not a little. Story, who pronounced the judO"mPnt of the court, hegan by a most remarkable a ~owal. 'l'he court, be said, did not mean to be held to apply to any o~.her .clauRe whatever of the constitution, any rules wh1ch, m ~he preR~nt case, they might sec fit to lay. ~own for Interprctmg the provision respecting fug1t1ves from labor. In fact the constitution was so peculiar ~n instrument, made so much in the s.pirit of comprom1se, that all general rules for its interpretation seemed out of the question. lt must be interpreted in the same spirit in which it had been made, and each d.ausc .must be handled by itself, according to the good d1scret10n of the court. ~n promulgating this new rule of judicial interpret~ t!On, or rather this declaration of independence and d1sregan.l of all rules, perhaps calculated to increase the already somewhat too "glorious uncertainty of the law," but also very convenient for timid and timese~ ving tribunals, the learned judge appears to have forgotten-or perhaps he only intended to confirm by a striking practical application of it-the strong n·mark of Lord Camden, that "the discretion of a judge is the law of tyrants, in the best ofttimes caprice, in the worst every vice, folly, and passion of which human nature is _liable." Its immediate object, no doubt, was to save his brethren, and indeed himself, from certain obvious charges of inconsistency, some of which wiH be presently pointed out. After this ~ingular preamble, Story proceeded to state a point in which all lhe judges except. McLean agreeJ; namely, that the cJause in the Federal consti~ tution respecting fugitives from labor jg of potency and vigor enough, indepeudently of any special Fed· |