Thomas v. Alexander

• Decision Date: 30 June 1837
• Citation: Thomas v. Alexander, 19 N. C. 385 (N.C. 1837)
• Parties: MORGAN J. THOMAS v. ABNER ALEXANDER.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

19 N.C. 385

MORGAN J. THOMAS

v.ABNER ALEXANDER.

SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA

JUNE TERM, 1837.

1. It is the settled rule of the Supreme Court, to affirm every judgment not seen to be erroneous.

2. The harboring and maintaining a runaway slave, to be within the act of 1791, (Rev c. 335, s. 4,) must be secret.

This was an action, upon the case, for harbouring a runaway slave, in violation of the act of 1791, (Rev. c. 335, sec. 4). Plea, not guilty.

There was no statement of the facts which occurred at the trial, certified in the record sent to this Court. But it appeared from the transcript, that his Honor Judge Toomer, had at Tyrrell, on the last Circuit, instructed the jury "that the plaintiff should satisfy them that he was the owner of the slave, and that the defendant had harboured or maintained him: that a construction had been given to the act of 1791, in the case of Dark v. Marsh, 4 N. C., 228, which declared that 'harbouring,' meant a concealment, and that the

maintenance must be secret: that if they believed from the testimony, that the slave was in the possession of the defendant, or was at his plantation, and was not concealed nor secretly maintained there, the defendant was entitled to their verdict." The jury found for the defendant; and the plaintiff appealed.

GASTON, Judge: The instructions of the judge, which were excepted to as erroneous, are set forth in the transcript, but it contains no statement of the evidence in reference to which the instructions were given. We might therefore, with propriety affirm the judgment, without examining the instructions, since it is the settled rule of this Court, (whatever inadvertencies to the contrary may have crept into some of its early decisions, when the precise limits of its jurisdiction were not ascertained) to reverse no judgment because it is not shown to be right, but only when it is seen to have been wrong. Pickett v. Pickett, ...