Now, the following are truths which a knowledge of the history of the world, and particularly of that of our own country, compels us to know--that the African negro race never have been acknowledged as belonging to the family of nations; that as amongst them there never has been known or recognised by the inhabitants of other countries anything partaking of the character of nationality, or civil or political polity; that this race has been by all the nations of Europe regarded as subjects of capture or purchase; as subjects of commerce or traffic; and that the introduction of that race into every section of this country was not as members of civil or political society, but as slaves, as _property_ in the strictest sense of the term. In the plea in abatement, the character or capacity of citizen on the part of the plaintiff is denied; and the causes which show the absence of that character or capacity are set forth by averment. The verity of those causes, according to the settled rules of pleading, being admitted by the demurrer, it only remained for the Circuit Court to decide upon their legal sufficiency to abate the plaintiff's action. And it now becomes the province of this court to determine whether the plaintiff below, (and in error here,) admitted to be a _negro_ of African descent, whose ancestors were of pure African blood, and were brought into this country and sold as negro slaves--such being his _status_, and such the circumstances surrounding his position--whether he can, by correct legal induction from that _status_ and those circumstances, be clothed with the character and capacities of a citizen of the State of Missouri?