The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-02-07
THE BILL RELATING TO FUGITIVES FROM
SERVICE OR LABOR.


THE BILL RELATING TO FUGITIVES FROM
SERVICE OR LABOR.
Men resist oppression, or seek to escape from
1t, because they are men, endowed with a sense oil
personal, inslienable rights, an inextinguish-
able love of liberty, and the capacity to enjoy it.
That the victim Of slavery should fee from its
horrors, is no new thing; and that the fugitive
should find sympathy among those not interested
in perpetusting his enslavement, can excite no
surprise among those who understand the in
stincts and laws of human nature. BY the Mo-
sale CODE this sympathy found sanction for its
manifestations in the law which protected the
fugitive servant from being seized by his master
and secured to him the protection and hOsPitsl-
ties Of the community in which he had taken
refuge. The modern Law of Nations regarding
slavery as a municipal, a merely local institution
does not bind one State TO surrender fugitive
slaves from other States. At times, conventions
or treaties of extraditiOn have been made between
neighborng Powers, in disregard OF the dictates
of humanity in obedience TO reasons u STATE
translation Of an article in a treaty x peace
entered into in the year s02, between Lsen
Alexandra " Constantine, Greek Emrsrer a.
Constantnople, and Oleg Regent Of isor. second
king of Russia on the occasion q the orss isVS-
sion of the Greek Empire by the Russians, uai<r
Oleg:
"Ifa Russian sltve take flight or even ID he i
carried away by any one under prJtenee OF having
! been bought his master shall have the right snd
power to pursue him. and hunt for and capture
him, wherever he shall be found and any person
who shall oppose the master in the execution OF
this right shall be deemed guilty Of violating this
treaty, and be punished accordingly"
On OCCASION Of a second invasion of the Greek
Empire by the Russians, another treaty was
formed, in 945, in which it was stipulated as fol-
lows
"Ifany slave shall f. from Russia into Greece,
90 BAH escape from the Russian merchants resid |
ing at Constantinople, the Russian master shall
have the right to pursue him, and to hunt for and
ssS>aT him and If be 2nnt. be fo10d IL master
shall make oath that his slave has escaped in which
case the Greeks shall pay the said master, accord |
ing to former treaties two pieces Of cloth for every
slave thus escaping into Greece; and if Greek |
slave escape into Russia in the possession of stolen
property, and cannot be found by his master, it |
shall be the duty of the Russians to deliver up |
said slave, together with the property which he
shall have stolen, whereupon the master shall pay
to the person so delivering up said slave two
pieces of gold, by way of rewardn
OF course, the execution of the duty thus
imposed, and the manner of executing it, were
left to the parties severaly contracting. There
was no common tribunal for the adjudication of
such cases
1t is remarkable, that after the lapse of
nearly nine centuries, we find a barbarous
stipulation between two barbarous nations repro
duced in the compact of union of the most
civilized and humane republic of the nineteenth
century We are familiar with the provision
referred to:
No person held to labor or service in one
State under the laws thereof escaping into an
other, SHALL in consequence of any law or regula-
ton therein, be discharged from such service or
labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the
party to whom such service or labor may be due"
The language of this clause of the Constitution,
like the phraseology of the articles above quoted
:. 49,. &c Stimulation No rn,"A- - .~-ss---d
upon Congress by the language of the clause ex-
pressly, and we have never been able to see how
it could be fairly implied. 1t bears the aspect of
stipulation between the States, and it would
seem as if it were left for the States severally to
provide measures for crrying it into effect.
Such, if we recollect Alright, was the decision of
Chief Justice Shaw Of Massachusetts,, some years
ago and such was the opinion of many eminent
jurists, until the decision of the Supreme Court
in the case of Prgg. That decision set aside, and
denied the right of, all State legislation on the
subject. asserted the exclusive power of Congress
to provide means for executing the provision, but
asserted, too the right of the master to seize his
slave wherever he might be found, and bear him
back TO the State whence he had escaped, without
process of law.
The free States, finding their right to act on
the subject denied by the highest tribunal Of the
country, discontinued all such action Some of
them, in view of the decision of the court, that
Congress could impose no duty on State officers,
in relation to the matter, passed laws forbdding
their magistrates and ministerial officers to issue
or serve process in the case of escaping slaves
laws clearly in harmony with said decision,
and not in conflict with the rights of slave
claimants Some States, too, in consideration of
the fact that as ;he Court had asserted the right
of slave claimants to seize their slaves wherever
found, without legal process, the liberties of por-
tons of their own free population might be put
in peril by sinister or mistaken claims passed
laws securing to persons claimed as slaves the
right to have the question legally determined
whether they were not free. And no right
,lol hot oh
unconstitutional, or violative Of the rights of
slave claimants
That the barbarous Russ should be permitted
in the dark ages to hunt and seize by violence, in
the territory of q semi, barbarous Empire, any
one Of its inhabitants whom he might choose to
claim as his fugitive slave, does not surprise US.
| But the masses have emerged from degradation
since the tenth century Personal rights are now
deemed sacred, and no guarantees against their
violation are held to be too stringent. The
State that would deny to any person within it's
limits the writ of haJeas corpus, in order to test
whether he was entitled to his freedom or not,
would be wanting in the first duty of sovereign
ty-that of the just protection of those within its
jurisdiction.
No free State has passed any laws to discharge
from service or labor persons fugitive from other
States where such service or labor may be due,
but many Of the free Safes have severe enact
mcnts for the prevention and punishment of kid
mapping The man, then, who seizes in one of
these States person whom he claims as his fugi-
tive slave, dees so ut his peril If the person
seized be fugitive from service or labor within
the meaning of the Constitution, he is secure