Mitchell v. Wells

Handy, J.,

delivered the following dissenting opinion.

I cannot concur in the views of this case taken by the majority of the court. Many of the views taken in the opinion of the court have, in my judgment, no application to the questions we are called upon to decide in the ease before us. The abstract policy of slavery, or of the manumission or freedom of slaves, is a question not belonging to this forum, nor proper to be determined by it. We are sitting as a court to adjudicate whether an emancipated slave has certain legal rights claimed by her. We have no right to establish or enlarge the…