It is alleged that the whole force of the above argument, otherwise conclusive, is annulled, because a slave is no party to the constitution, is not under its protecting shield any more than a horse or an ox, and therefore, any provisions, however strong, securing the jury trial, are inapplicable to him.
Mann critiques the argument that slaves are not protected by the constitution, equating them to property rather than people.
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I answer, that this difference which they so be-little and disparage will often be all the difference between freedom and bondage, between life and death, between honor and infamy, between happiness and perdition.
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.
My instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, may all mislead; but from the first time, now years ago, when I heard this subject broached, my instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, have all been in its favor.
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