He intimated, however, that a majority of
the Judges of the Supreme Court having passed on the
constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law was no reason why
he should not take up the Constitution and read it for
himself, being sworn to support the Constitution of the
United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio.
Mr. Ketchum suggested that his Honor was as much bound in
conscience to regard the decision of the majority of the
Judges of the United States Courts as the express provisions
of the Constitution itself.
Judge Burgoyne said, that however the decisions of the Judges
of the United States Courts might aid him in coming to a
conclusion, where the obligations of his conscience were
involved, he could not screen himself behind a decision made
by somebody else.
Judge Burgoyne subsequently decided that, in as far as the
Fugitive Slave Law was intended to suspend the writ of
_habeas corpus_--and he believed that it was so intended--it
clearly transcended the limits prescribed by the
Constitution, and is "utterly void.
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