Describing Blackford's style as a jurist, Oliver H. Smith wrote, "The principal characteristic of his mind is caution. He never guesses, He is emphatically a book judge. Declamation with him is nothing; precedent and good authority is everything." His reliance on English common law and especially precedents set by Westminster Hall, was unique compared to other frontier states. Chancellor Kent commented that "It is an interesting fact to find not only the lex mercatoria of English common law, but the refinements of the English equity system, adopted and enforced in the State of Indiana as early as 1820, when we consider how recently that country had then risen from a wilderness into a cultivated and civilized community." Prominent cases Among the many cases Blackford presided over was the 1820 case of Polly v. Lasselle, in which he retroactively applied the state constitution's ban on slavery which freed all slaves in Indiana. Among his most important and impacting decisions was the case of State v. Tipton which severely limited the ability to appeal decisions to higher courts, but significantly decreased the Supreme Court's caseload. Under the original state constitution, Indiana had no appeals court, and all appeals from the circuit courts came directly to the Supreme Court. In the decision, Blackford wrote, "Courts of record have exclusive control over charges for contempt, and their conviction or acquittal is final and conclusive. This great power is intrusted to these tribunals of justice for the support and preservation of their respectability and idependence; it has existed from the earliest period to which the annals of jurisdiction extend, and, except in a few cases of party violence, it has been sanctioned and established by the experience of ages." The decision was recognized as precedent in Indiana for 49 years. It was valid until Judge Buskirk investigated the precedent Blackford cited and discovered the underlying decision (Lord Mayor of London, 3 Wils. 188) was "not at all in point, while the whole current of modern decisions was in favor of appeal and review." In Deming v. Bullit Blackford ruled that parties could cancel contracts of sale even after payment was made, provided they refunded the fees. Blackford eventually overruled his own precedent in the case of Cunningham v. Flinn. In Shanklin v. Cooper he ruled that contracts made in Indiana regarding assets outside of the state were still under Indiana's judicial jurisdiction, although he ruled