About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

Osborn v. Nicholson et al. U.S. 654 (1872)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0354 and id is 1 raw text is: OSBORN V. NICHOLSON. Syllabus. that whenever this result is produced, the act is within the prohibition of the Constitution, and to that extent void. When the contract here in question was entered into, ample remedies existed. All were taken away by the proviso in the new constitution. Not a vestige was left. Every means of enforcement was denied, and this denial if valid involved the annihilation of the contract. But it is not valid. The proviso which seeks to work this result, is, so far as all pre- existing contracts are concerned, itself a nullity. It is to them as ineffectual as if it had no existence. Upon the question as thus presented, several eminent State courts have expressed the same views.* As the case is disclosed in the record we entertain no doubt of the original validity of the note, nor of its validity when the decision before us was made. But as that question was not raised in this case, we deem it unnecessary to re- mark further upon the subject. JUDGMENT REVERSED and the case remanded to the Su- preme Court of Georgia, with directions to proceed IN CONFORMITY TO THIS OPINION. The CHIEF JUSTICE dissented from this judgment. See the next case, and his opinion at page 663, infra. OSBORN V. NICHOLSON ET AL. A person in Arkansas, one of the late slaveholding States, for a valuable consideration, passed in M1arch, 1861, before the rebellion had broken out, sold a negro slave which he then had, warranting the said negro to be a slave for life, and also warranting the title to him clear and per- fect. The 13th amendment to the Constitution, made subsequently (A. D. 1865), ordained that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Held, that negro slavery having been recognized as lawful at the time when and the place where the contract was made, and the contract * Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 289. [Sup. Ct.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most