The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-05-17

description of the fugitive. This record, prop
erly attested and certified under the official seal
of the Court, being taken to the State where
the person owing service or labor is found, is to
be held competent and sufficient evidence of the
facts which had been adiudicated, and will
leave nothing more TO be done than to identify
the fugitive.
Numerous petitions have been presented,
praying for trial by jury in the case OF arrest
of fugitives from service or labor, in the nom
slaveholding States 1t has been already shown
that this would be entirely contrary to practice
and uniform usage in all similar cases. Under
the name of popular and cherished institution
AN institution, however. never applied in ca
ses of preliminary proceeding, and only in cases
of final trial--there would be complete mock.
cry of justice, so far as the owner of the tug-
tive is concerned. If the trial by jury be ad.
mitted, it would draw after it its usual conse-
quences, of continuance from time to time, to
bring evidence from distant places, of second
or new trials, in cases where the jury is hung,
or the verdict is set aside, and of revisals OF the
verdict and conduct of the juries by competent
tribunals. During the progress of all these d-
latory and expensive proceedings, what security
is there as to the custody and forthcoming of
the fugitive upon their tarnination' And if,
finally, the claimant should be successful, con-
trary to what happens in ordinary litigation be.
tween free persons, he would have to bear all
the burdens and expense Of the litigation, with.
out indemnity, and would learn, by sad expert
ence, that he had by far better have abandoned
his right in the first instance, than to establish
it at such unremunerated cost and heavy sac
riice.
But whilst the committee conceive that
trial by jury in a State where fugitive from
service or labor is recaptured would be vir.
tual denial of Justice to the claimant of such
fugitive, and would be tantamount to positive
refusal to execute the provisions Of the Con-
stitution, the same objections do not apply to
such trial in the Stale from which he fled
In the slaveholding States, full justice is ad-
miaistered with entire fairness and impartiality,
in cases of all actions for freedom The person
claiming his freedom is allowedto sue in lorna
pauperis counsel is assigned him; time is allow
cd him to collect his witnesses and to attend
the session of the court and his claimant is
placed under bond and security, or is divested
of the possession during the progress of the
trial, to ensure the enjoyment ofthese privileges
and if there be any leaning OH the part courts
aud jurics, it is always on the side Of the claim
ant for freedom
In Difference to the feelings and prejudices
| which prevail in the non.slavehoding States,
the committe propose such trial i'll the State
from which the fu. tive fled, in all cases where
he declares to the officer giving the certificate
for his return that he has right to his freedom.
Accordingly, the committee have prepared, and
report herewith, (marled C0 two sections,
which they recommend should be Incorporated
in the fugitive bill pending in the senate. Ac-
cording to these sections, the claimant is placed
under bond, and required to return the fugitive
to that county in the State from which he fled,
and there to take him before competent tri-
bunal, and allow him to assert and establish his
freedom if he can, aiorHing to him, for that
purpose, all nccdiu facilities.
The committee indulge the hope that if the
fugitive bill, with the proposed amendments,
shall be passed BY Congress, it will be etlectua
to secure the recovery oitugitives from service
or labor, and that it will remove all causes Of
complaint which have hitherto been experienced
on that irritating subject But, if in its practi-
CAL operation it shall be found Insufficient, apd
if no adequate remedy can be devised for the
restoration to thci; owners of fugitive slaves,
those owners will have just title to indemnity
out OF the Treasury of the United States.
1t remains to report upon the resolutions in
relation to slavery and the slave trade in the
District, of Columbia. Without discussing the
power Of Congress to abolish slavery within the
District, in regard to which diversity of fopm-
ins exist, the committee arc of opinion that it
ought not to be abolished. 1t could not be
done without Indispensable conditions, which
are not likely to be agreed to. 1t could not be
done without exciting great apprehension and
alarm in the slave States. If the power were
exercised within the District, they would appre.
hend that, under some pretcXt or another, it
might be hereafter attempted to be exercised in
the slaveholding States. 1t is true that at pres
ent all such power within those States is almost
unanimously disavowed and disclaimed in the
free States But experience lii public affairs
has too often shown that where there is de-
sire to do a particular thing, the power to &C.
complish it, sooner or later, will be found or u.s.
sumed
Nor does the number of slaves within the
District make the abolition Of slavery an OBJ.
ject of any such consequence rs appears to be
| attached to it i'll some parts of the union.-
Since the retrocession of Alexandria county to
Virginia, OH the South side of the Potomac, the