A court properly inspired, and ready to assume that just responsibility which dignifies judicial tribunals, would at once declare Slavery impossible at the national capital, and set every slave free,--as Lord Mansfield declared Slavery impossible in England, and set every slave free. The two cases are parallel; but, alas! the court is wanting here. The legality of Slavery in England was affirmed in professional opinions by the ablest lawyers; it was also affirmed on the bench. England was a Slave State, and even its newspapers were disfigured with advertisements for the sale of human beings, while the merchants of London, backed by great names in the law, sustained the outrage. Then appeared Granville Sharp, the philanthropist, who, pained by the sight of Slavery, and especially shocked by the brutality of a slave-hunt in the streets of London, was aroused to question its constitutionality in England. For two years he devoted himself to anxious study of the British Constitution in all its multifarious records. His conclusion is expressed in these precise words: “The word _slaves_, or anything that can justify the enslaving of others, is not to be found there, God be thanked!”[238] Thus encouraged, he persevered. By his generous exertions the negro Somerset, claimed as a slave by a Virginia gentleman then in London, was defended, and the Court of King’s Bench compelled to that immortal judgment by which Slavery was forever expelled from England, and the early boast of the British Constitution became a practical verity. More than fourteen thousand persons, held as slaves on British soil--four times as many as are now found in the national capital--became instantly free, without price or ransom. The good work that our courts thus far decline remains to be done by Congress. Slavery, which is a scandalous anomaly and anachronism here, must be made to disappear from the national capital,--if not in one way, then in another. A judgment of court would be simply on the question of constitutional right, without regard to policy. But there is no consideration of right or of policy, from the loftiest principle to the humblest expediency, which may not properly enter into the conclusion of Congress. The former might be the triumph of the magistrate,--the latter must be that of the statesman. But whether from magistrate or from statesman, it will constitute an epoch in history. * * * * *