Lemmon v. New York

Lemmon v. New York (1852), a decision by the Superior Court of the City of New York, granted freedom to eight slaves, including six children, who were brought into New York by their Virginia slave owners, while in transit during relocation to Texas.[1] John Jay II, Erastus D. Culver and Chester A. Arthur (future president of the United States) were the defense team representing the slaves.

The ruling was upheld by the New York Supreme Court and its Appeals Court in 1860. The Lemmons intended to have the state of Virginia take their appeal to the United States Supreme Court, but the outbreak of the American Civil War precluded the case from being heard.

Background

Jonathan Lemmon and his wife Juliet, who were residents of Virginia, decided to migrate to Texas. In November 1852, the Lemmons travelled by steamship City of Richmond from Norfolk, Virginia to New York City, where they were to embark on another steamship to Texas.

They had brought with them eight slaves belonging to Mrs. Lemmon. They made up two family groups, each headed by a young woman: the first was Emiline (age 23); Amanda (age 2), daughter of Emiline; and Edward (age 13), brother of Emiline; the second was Nancy (age 20); Lewis (age 16), brother of Nancy; Lewis and Edward (age 7), sons of Nancy; and Ann (age 5), daughter of Nancy. While the Lemmons awaited the ship to Texas, they placed their slaves in a boarding house at No. 3 Carlisle Street and booked another hotel for themselves.

Louis Napoleon, a free African-American resident of New York and activist with the Underground Railroad, was alerted by a black porter about the slaves. Free blacks in New York aided slaves brought to the city in achieving freedom, as New York was a free state and had abolished slavery. On 6 November 1852, Napoleon presented a petition to Justice Elijah Paine Jr of the Superior Court of New York City for a writ of habeas corpus that would effectively emancipate the slaves. The petition was based on an 1817 New York law that stated

No person held as a slave shall be imported, introduced, or brought into this State on any pretense whatever. Every such person shall be free.

Mr. Lemmon's attorneys objected. They asserted that the Lemmons were transporting their slaves from Virginia to Texas, which was interstate commerce, and cited the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) that states had no power to regulate interstate commerce, as that power was granted to the federal government.

The state of New York designated lawyers to appear in support of the petition, including John Jay, Erastus D. Culver, and Chester Alan Arthur. They argued that the U.S. Constitution granted limited powers to the federal government, and those powers not granted were reserved for the states. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required states to return fugitive slaves. New York argued that this explicit requirement implicitly excluded any requirement for states to return non-fugitive slaves, by the principle expressio unius exclusio alterius ("the express mention of one thing excludes others").

Decision

On November 13, 1852, Judge Paine held that necessity did not require the Lemmons to travel to Texas via New York. They chose to bring their slaves to New York, a free state. Thus, the slaves were free according to New York state law forbidding bringing slaves in transit into the state. Paine relied on the English precedent set in Somersett v. Stewart (1772), where the Court of King's Bench declared that only positive law could uphold slavery and that, since England had no laws upholding slavery, slaves entering English territory became free.[2]

Lemmon appealed to the New York Supreme Court, which affirmed Justice Paine in December 1857. Lemmon appealed again, to the New York Court of Appeals (the state's highest appellate court). The Court of Appeals affirmed by a vote of 5-3 in March 1860, holding that the slaves were free.[3]

The Lemmons assigned their rights to the State of Virginia, which had planned to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. By then the American Civil War had begun and the case was never heard.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Heidler, David Stephen; Heidler, Jeanne T.; Coles, David J. (2002). Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a political, social, and military. W.W. Norton & Co. pp. Page 1174. ISBN 978-0-393-04758-5.
  2. 1 2 nycourts.gov: The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York, "The Lemmon Slave Case" (JOHN D. GORDAN, III) Issue 4, 2006
  3. ↑ "The Association of the Bar of the City of New York - Library".
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