Under the laws of Maryland, he might have held his slave, for her statutes had legalized slavery; but under the constitution of the United States, he could not hold a slave; for that constitution had given Congress no power to legalize slavery in this District, and had gone so far as to make prohibitions against it.
Mann argues that the U.S. Constitution does not grant Congress the power to legalize slavery in the District of Columbia.
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The liberty of voting includes all other liberties.
Why, fellow-citizens, the ballot is worse than useless, if it be not FREE!
Let me read to you the disparaging and contemptuous remark of the address on that great palladium of human liberty, the trial by jury.
Better be debarred from the privilege of voting at all, than to be mocked with the form, while cheated of the substance.
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