This prohibition, according to the Supreme Court, is obligatory on Congress.[236] It is also applicable to all claimed as slaves; for, in the eye of the Constitution, every human being within its sphere, whether Caucasian, Indian, or African, from the President to the slave, is a _person_. Of this there is no question. But a remarkable incident of history confirms the conclusion. As originally recommended by Virginia, North Carolina, and Rhode Island, this proposition was restricted to the _freeman_. Its language was,-- “No _freeman_ ought to be deprived of his life, _liberty_, or property, but by the law of the land.”[237] Of course, if the word _freeman_ had been adopted, this clause would be restricted in its effective power. Deliberately rejecting this limitation, the authors of the Amendment recorded their purpose that no _person_, within the national jurisdiction, of whatever character, shall be deprived of _liberty_ without due process of law. The latter words are borrowed from Magna Charta, and they mean without due presentment, indictment, or other judicial proceedings. But Congress, undertaking to support Slavery at the national capital, enacts that _persons_ may be deprived of liberty there without any presentment, indictment, or other judicial proceedings. Therefore every _person_ now detained as a slave in the national capital is detained in violation of the Constitution. Not only is his liberty taken without due process of law, but, since he is tyrannically despoiled of all the fruits of his industry, his property also is taken without due process of law. You talk sometimes of guaranties of the Constitution. Here is an unmistakable guaranty, and I hold you to it. Bringing the argument together, the conclusion may be briefly stated. The five-headed barbarism of Slavery, beginning in violence, can have no legal or constitutional existence, unless through positive words expressly authorizing it. As no such positive words are found in the Constitution, all legislation by Congress supporting Slavery must be unconstitutional and void, while it is made still further impossible by positive words of prohibition guarding the liberty of every _person_ within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress.