These acts were severally signed by seven Presidents of the United States, beginning with General Washington, and coming regularly down as far as Mr.John Quincy Adams, thus including all who were in public life when the Constitution was adopted.

If the practical construction of the Constitution, contemporaneously with its going into effect, by men intimately acquainted with its history from their personal participation in framing and adopting it, and continued by them through a long series of acts of the gravest importance, be entitled to weight in the judicial mind on a question of construction, it would seem to be difficult to resist the force of the acts above adverted to." [Illustration: SAMUEL NELSON.] -- -------- [1] The declaration in the case of Dred Scott vs.

John F.A.

Sandford was filed in the clerk's office of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Missouri on the second day of November, 1853.

The trespass complained of is alleged to have occurred on the first day of January, 1853 .-- Manuscript Records of the Supreme Court of the United States.
[2] At the first hearing Montgomery Blair argued the case for Dred Scott, and Senator Geyer, of Missouri, and ex-Attorney-General Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, for the claimant.