Thomas Moore, Executor of Richard Eels, Plaintiff in Error v. the People of the State of Illinois

The plaintiff in error was indicted and convicted under the criminal code of Illinois for 'harboring and secreting a negro slave.' The record was removed by writ of error to the Supreme Court of that State; and it was there contended, on behalf of the plaintiff in error, that the judgment and conviction should be reversed, because the statute of Illinois, upon which the indictment was founded, is void, by reason of its being in conflict with that article of the Constitution of the United States which declares 'that no person held to labor or service in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such labor may be due.' And, also, because said statute is in conflict with the act of Congress on the same subject. That this record presents a case of which this court has jurisdiction under the twenty-fifth section of the judiciary act, is not disputed.