The Lemmon Slave Case

The Habeas Corpus Petition

Juliet Lemmon, a slave-owner traveling from Virginia to Texas with eight slaves--a man aged about eighteen, two women of about the same age, each with a young infant, and three children--stayed over in New York City to make a steamship connection. On November 8, 1852, Louis Napoleon, a free black man residing in New York City, discovered their presence and petitioned Justice Elijah Paine of the Superior Court of the City of New York for a writ of habeas corpus. Justice Paine granted the writ and it was executed, removing the slaves from Mrs. Lemmon's custody.

Following a hearing held November 9 through 12, 1852, Justice Paine ordered that the eight slaves be released. He ruled that the slaves were free under terms of a New York law that automatically emancipated any slaves brought into the state.

Writing five years before Dred Scott , Justice Paine rejected Mrs. Lemmon's argument that, under the law of nations, she had the right to pass undisturbed through New York with her property. He stated that:

by the law of nature all men are free, and [] where slavery is not established and upheld by the law of the state there can be no slaves.

Mrs. Lemmon also had argued that the Privileges and Immunities Clause entitled her to come into New York with her slaves with all the protections that she enjoyed under Virginia law. In his opinion, Justice Paine held that the Privileges and Immunities Clause granted citizens of Virginia no greater property rights than those accorded New York citizens by New York law.

E.D. Culver and John Jay appeared as counsel for the petitioners.

H. D. Lapaugh and H.L. Clinton appeared as counsel for the respondent.

The case was reported at: 5 Sand SCR 681; 7 NY Super 681 (12 Nov 1852). A note was included in the Reports stating that:
The novelty and importance of this case, and the national interest that has attached to its decision were deemed to justify, if not require, the early and full report, that is now given.

The Writ of Certiorari in the New York Supreme Court

Justice Paine's decision in the Lemmon habeas petition caused great agitation in the South. The Virginia Legislature directed its Attorney General to appeal to the higher courts of New York. The New York Legislature passed a resolution directing the Governor to ensure representation for the People of New York. In December 1857, the case came before the New York Supreme Court on a writ of certiorari.

Nine months earlier in that same year, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in the Dred Scott case. Led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the Court held that blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The Taney Court held the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the country's territories. New York's reaction was swift-- on April 9, the Report of the Joint Senate and Assembly Committee (chaired by Samuel A. Foot, former Judge of the New York Court of Appeals) was issued condemning the decision, and a legislative resolution stating:

That New York would not allow Slavery within her borders, in any form or under any pretence or for any time however short let the consequences be what they may.

was passed by both the Senate and the Assembly and forwarded to the Governor for transmission with the report to all the States of the Union. The report and resolution were published in full in the New York Times April 11, 1857.

On December 30, 1857, four justices of the New York Supreme Court (Davies, P.J., Mitchell, Clerke and Peabody, JJ), affirmed Justice Paine's decision. The opinion was written by Justice Mitchell with Justice Roosevelt dissenting. The opinion stated that:

the holding of slaves in this state, for any purpose is as injurious to our condition and to the public peace, as it is opposed to the sentiment of the people of this state.

Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech on June 16, 1858. In it, he spoke of the legal system as the arena in which the pro-slavery forces would push for national recognition. Some scholars believe that Lincoln was alluding to the Lemmon case when he predicted another Dred Scott.

H. D. Lapaugh and C. O'Connor appeared as counsel for the plaintiff in error (Jonathan Lemmon).

W. M. Evarts appeared for the People of the State of New York.

The case was was reported at: 26 Barb 270 (Dec 1857).

The Appeal to the New York Court of Appeals

Lemmon (in reality, the State of Virginia) appealed from the order of the intermediary appellate court, the New York Supreme Court, to the State's court of final appeal, the New York Court of Appeals. Contemporaneous events include Governor Fenton's New Year's Day message condemning the Harpers Ferry invasion and declaring the right and power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the territories, and Abraham Lincoln's speech at the Cooper Institute in New York on 27 February, 1860 in which he attacked slavery and insists that the Federal government has "the power of restraining the extension of the institution."

An article appeared in the New York Times on January 25, 1860, in which it was reported:

The celebrated lawsuit, known as the Lemmon Slave Case, has at last been reached upon the calendar of the Court of Appeals, at Albany. Yesterday, upon the opening of the Court, Mr. Charles O'Connor who is nominally retained by the plaintiff, but actually by the State of Virginia, proceeded to present the case of his clients.

The paper reproduced Mr. O'Connor's arguments. The following day, the New York Times reported the arguments of Mr. Evarts, counsel for the People and, on March 27, the arguments of amicus curiae John Jay.

The Court of Appeals decision was handed down in March 1860 and reported at 20 NY 562. The judgment of the Supreme Court was affirmed by Judges Denio, Wright, Davies Bacon and Welles. Judge Clerke and Chief Judge Comstock wrote dissenting opinions and Judge Samuel Selden expressed no opinion. Opinions for affirmance were delivered by Judges Denio and Wright. Judge William B Wright stated:

Men are not the subject of property by such law, nor by any law, except that of the State in which the status exists; not even by the Federal Constitution, which is supposed by some to have been made only to guard and protect the rights of a particular race; for in that human beings, without regard to color or country, are treated as persons and not as property. The public law exacts no obligation from this State to enforce the municipal law which makes men the subject of property; but by that law the strangers stand upon our soil in their natural condition as men.

The Lemmon case did not reach the Supreme Court of the United States--major events of the times intervened. On April 12, 1861, an attack on Fort Sumter signaled the beginning of the Civil War and in September of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. It took effect January 1, 1863, and freed the slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union.

Additional Links to documents related to the Lemmon Slave Case
Court Documents
Record and Briefs on Appeals to the New York Court of Appeals (Courtesy of the New York State Library)

Excerpts from Lincoln's Constitutional History of New York outlining the legal history of slavery in the Colony and State:
Volume I
Volume IV

Common Law Writs
Habeas Corpus
Certiorari

New York Statutes abolishing slavery:
Chapter Laws
Laws of 1781, chapter 32
Laws of 1788, chapter 40
Laws of 1798, chapter 27
Laws of 1799, chapter 62
Laws of 1817, chapter 137
Laws of 1840, chapter 375
Laws of 1841, chapter 247

Revised Statutes (Consolidated Laws)
Revised Statutes of New York, part I, ch XX, tit VII
Revised Statutes of New York, 2d ed., part I, ch XX, tit VII
Revised Statutes of New York , 3d ed., part I, ch XX, tit VII
Revised Statutes of New York, 4th ed., part I, ch XX, tit VII
Revised Statutes of New York, 5th ed., part I, ch XX, tit VII
Revised Statutes of New York, 6th ed., part I, ch XX, tit VII (includes details of New York's ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution)