yond the caſes in Maſſachuſetts Reports, iv., 128, 129; xvi., 73, and Cuſhing's Reports, x., 410, which are alſo referred to by Mr. Juſtice Gray in a ſtill more recent and authoritative publication. The diſtinguiſhed ability of this gentleman, ſo long recognized and acknowledged at the bar in Maſſachuſetts, will do ample honor to the bench to which he is ſo juſtly advanced. We entertain the higheſt reſpect for his attainments, his judgment, and his critical ſagacity; but in this inſtance we think he has fallen into a ſerious error, which not even the great weight of his authority can eſtabliſh or perpetuate in hiſtory.
In an elaborate hiſtorical note to the caſe of Oliver vs. Sale, Quincy's Reports, 29, he ſays:
"Previouſly to the adoption of the State Conſtitution in 1780, negro ſlavery exi{{ls}]ted to {{ls}ome extent, and negroes held as ſlaves might be ſold, but all children of ſlaves were by law free."
So diſtinct and poſitive an aſſertion ſhould have been fortified by unequivocal authority. In this caſe Mr. Gray gives us two or three dozen ſeparate references. Theſe are numerous and concluſive enough as to the facts in the firſt clauſes of his ſtatement—that negro ſlavery exiſted in Maſſachuſetts, and that negro ſlaves might be ſold; but for the laſt and moſt important part of it, that all children of ſlaves were by law free,[1] there is not an iota of evidence or author-
- ↑ In the caſe of Newport vs. Billing, which Mr. Gray believes to have been "the lateſt inſtance of a verdict for the maſter," it was found by the highest court in Maſſachuſetts, on appeal from a ſimilar deci{{ls]}ion in the inferior court, "that the ſaid Amos [Newport] was not a freeman, as he alledged, but the proper ſlave of the ſaid Joſeph [Billing]. Records, 1768, fol. 284. As this ſeems to have been one of the ſo-called "freedom
