Page:Notes on the History of Slavery - Moore - 1866.djvu/31

 the caes in Maachuetts Reports,, 128, 129; ., 73, and Cuhing's Reports, , 410, which are alo referred to by Mr. Jutice Gray in a till more recent and authoritative publication. The ditinguihed ability of this gentleman, o long recognized and acknowledged at the bar in Maachuetts, will do ample honor to the bench to which he is o jutly advanced. We entertain the highet repect for his attainments, his judgment, and his critical agacity; but in this intance we think he has fallen into a erious error, which not even the great weight of his authority can etablih or perpetuate in hitory.

In an elaborate hitorical note to the cae of Oliver vs. Sale, Quincy's Reports, 29, he ays:

"Previouly to the adoption of the State Contitution in 1780, negro lavery exi{{ls}]ted to {{ls}ome extent, and negroes held as laves might be old, but all children of laves were by law free."

So ditinct and poitive an aertion hould have been fortified by unequivocal authority. In this cae Mr. Gray gives us two or three dozen eparate references. Thee are numerous and concluive enough as to the facts in the firt claues of his tatement—that negro lavery exited in Maachuetts, and that negro laves might be old; but for the lat and mot important part of it, that all children of laves were by law free, there is not an iota of evidence or