This decision was to the effect that negro slaves were not citizens, and no means existed by which they could become such; they were simply property like household goods and chattels, and their owner could take them into any State in the Union without forfeiting his ownership in them. It followed also from this important decision that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 were null and void, since it was beyond the power of the contracting parties to make such agreements. Six of the justices concurred in this decision and two dissented. [Illustration: LUCRETIA MOTT PROTECTING THE NEGRO DANGERFIELD FROM THE MOB IN PHILADELPHIA. When Daniel Dangerfield, a fugitive slave, was tried in Philadelphia, Lucretia Mott sat during all his trial by the side of the prisoner. When the trial was ended Dangerfield was set at liberty, and Mrs. Mott walked out of the court-room and through the mob which threatened to lynch him, her hand on the colored man's arm, and that little hand was a sure protector, for no one dared to touch him.] This decision was received with delight in the South and repudiated in the North. The contention there was that the Constitution regarded slaves as "persons held to labor" and not as property, and that they were property only by State law. JOHN BROWN'S RAID. While the chasm between the North and South was rapidly growing wider, a startling occurrence took place. John Brown was a fanatic who believed Heaven had appointed him its agent for freeing the slaves in the South. He was one of the most active partisans on the side of freedom in the civil war in Kansas, and had been brooding over the subject for years, until his belief in his mission became unshakable. Brown's plan was simple, being that of invading Virginia with a small armed force and calling upon the slaves to rise. He believed they would flock around him, and he fixed upon Harper's Ferry as the point to begin his crusade. Secretly gathering a band of twenty men, in the month of October, 1859, he held them ready on the Maryland shore. Late on Sunday night, the 16th, they crossed the railway bridge over the Potomac, seized the Federal armory at Harper's Ferry, stopped all railroad trains, arrested a number of citizens, set free such slaves as they came across, and held complete possession of the town for twenty-four hours. Brown acted with vigor. He threw out pickets, cut the telegraph wires, and sent word to the slaves that their day of deliverance had come and they were summoned to rise. By this time the citizens had themselves risen, and, attacking the invaders, drove them into the armory, from which they maintained fire until it became clear that they must succumb. Several made a break, but were shot down. Brown retreated to an engine-house with his wounded and prisoners and held his assailants at bay all through Monday and the night following.