OCR Text |
Show 236 DESPOTISM ever may be the legal eflCct of i~1is clause, it ~nrcly neither intended to give, nor can tt have a1~y eficct to give a ]coal or ri«htful character to any claLms of service' not Previously rightful and legal. From numerous recent speeches, .J?ublishcd opinions a nd other apologies for the fugtttvc slave act of l SUd one might be led to imagine that the surrc1_1der of fu1aitive slaves had been one of the great questiOnS on wJ1 ich t he Federal convention had divided, and whic h, as an indispensable condition of union, it h~d become necessary to settle by a salem~ co~prom,1~e embodied in the article here under consideratiOn. Io show how utterly fabulous t hese statcmen!s, so derogatory to the convention and to the natton, are, we subjoin, from li'Iadison's Report of the Debates of the Convention, a ll that is known of the history of th1:5 clause; merely premising, what se~ms to be. s?me· times for«otten that t he Union d1d not ongmate with the ~onvez;tion, but had been established by the Articles of Confederation ratified by all the states some years before-articles which t he convent ion h~~ met to amplify and amend •o as to give greater efhczency to the central administration. After warm and protracted debates, and the com· promise, as already briefly mentioned, o_f two .v.ery exciting questions-one, that of the relative pohhcal weight in the general government to be allowed to the great and small states, which, by the articles of confederation, possessed an equal vo1ce; t he other as to ratio of representa tion in the lower House,-for the third of the t hree great compromises, that relating to the importation for twenty years of su?h persons as any of the states miaht see fit to a llow, dzc\ not take place till a subseque~t stage of ~roceedin~s,-the conv~n· tion came at lenoth to certam resolutwns embodywg the result of it~ previous discussio~s and compr~· mise~ and supplyin(T the rough matcnal of the co.nstl· tutio1~ as subscque~tly adopted. These rcsolutl.ons, which did not embrace any more than the articles 237 of C'Onfcdcration, any thing Oil lhc subject of fuo-itives, whether from justice or labor, were rcferr~d to a committee of detail, whose report, among otber specific provisions, now first suggested, contai11ed an arliele g iving to the citizens of each state a ll the privileges of cit izens in the several states, and another, providing for the mutual surrender by the states of fugitivet:i from other states charged with t reason, felony, or high misdemeanor. rrhc first of these articles coming up for debate, General Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, expressed himself not satisfied with it. "He seemed to wish t hat some provision should be inserted in it in favor of property in slaves." Very likely he had in his head a provision as to the states similar to the pretension lately set up by the slave-holders as to the territories, giving the right to hold slaves into whatever state t he holder might choose to carry them. But if so, he did not venture upon any such barefaced proposition; and the article, as .it now stands in t he constitution, was adopted by the votes of all the states present except South Carolina in the negative, and Georgia divided. The proposed article on the subject of fugitives from justice coming up immediately after, Butler, another South Carolina member, moved "to require fug itive slaves a nd serv~nts to be deliv~ ered up like criminals." To this, Wilson, of Pennsylvania, objected" that it would require t he executive of the state to do it at the public expense." Sherman, of Connecticut, added that "he saw no more propriety in the public sci:~ing and surrendering a slave or servant than a horse." With a view to some separate provision, Butler withdrew his proposition; but the next day offered the draft of a clause, t he idea of which was evidently derived from a similar provision in an ordinance just passed by t he Continental Congre.:::s, which, in prohibiting for~ver slavery and involuntary servitude, except in pumshmcnt of crimes, il1 t he territory north-west of the Ohio, (latt·ly ceded to the Union by the states of Vir· |