Fales v. Mayberry

STOBY, Circuit Justice.

You need not labor the argument. Certainly this action cannot be maintained. The traffic in slaves is a most odious and horrible traffic, contrary to the plainest principles of natural justice and humanity. And it has been very forcibly and correctly observed by a learned judge (Sir W. Grant, — Wheat. Mar. Capt 229), that, abstractedly speaking, it cannot have a legal existence. The laws of the United States, long before the inception of this voyage (Act 22d March, 1794, c. 11 [1 Stat 347]), prohibited, under severe penalties, (including the forfeiture of the vessel)…