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Justices agreed and ruled in favor of Bailey and Lincoln: “It is a presumption of law, in the State of Illinois, that every person is free, without regard to color. … The sale of a free person is illegal.”

Again, the presumption of law will always be in favour of a title by settlement.

Again, in the case of a river, the banks of which are possessed by contiguous states, the presumption of law is, that the Thalweg, or mid-channel, is the mutual boundary; since rivers are, in the case of conterminous states, communis juris, unless acknowledged by them to be otherwise, or prescribed for by one of the parties.

Title, then, by settlement, though originally imperfect, may be thus perfected by enjoyment during a reasonable lapse of time, the presumption of law from undisturbed possession being, that there is no prior owner, because there is no claimant,—no better proprietary right, because there is no asserted right.

Great Britain, in admitting the right of the United States to be the party in possession of Fort George pending the discussion of the title to it, attached the most liberal interpretation to the Treaty of Ghent, and certainly gave to the United States, in all future discussions, the advantage of the presumption of law, on the ground of possession, as against Great Britain:—“Commodum possidentis in eo est, quod etiamsi ejus res non sit, qui possidet, si modo actor non potuerit suam esse probare, remanet in suo loco possessio.”