The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-01-03
Fugitive slave Legislation.

NrR from the select committee on The subject
made an able report, from which we make al
important extract
In Ohio there is law on the statute book
which gives the fugitive slave the right of ha
Jeas corpus and trial by jury, and whenever .
case arises it may be expected that this law will
be observed by the State authority. 1t is only
necessary for habeas corpus TO be served OF
the Marshal or Commissioner, as is now done il
New York, and the fugitive can be brought be
fore the State courts and one Judge in Ohio has
recently declared in public meeting, that he
will enforce the State law This, OF course
can only be done, by taking jurisdiction not only
of the legality of the warrant in the hands Of
the Marshal, but of the question of identity
and of title to the fugitive If these are tried by
State tribunals, ii is easy enough to foresee the
decision:
1t could scarcely be supposed, that, in framing
a government like that of the Constitution or the
United States, which was designed TO endure for
ages and which was expected to dilluse the bles-
sings of fraternity and peace over numerous re-
pubics marked by such diversites of climate, pur-
suit opinion, interests and domestic policy, an IN
stitution 80 peculiar and permanent, so wide
spread and important in all its consequences as
slavery, should not receive its due share OF con-
sideratIon in that body. We accordingly learn
from the authentic records Of that period, that II
formed leading and exciting topic in the Discus
sion of the federal convention. Its existence and
its influence upon the future destiny of such por-
tons OF the confederacy were likely to retain II
as permanent portion of their policy, were dis
cussed with the fullest and most mature delIbera-
ton. The opposing interests OF NORTH ara south
were brought out in full array, and after weeks of
consideration and debate by the wise and ilustri-
GUS men who composed that assembly, after great
and mutual concessions made on all sides for the
public good, their labors on this subject resulted
Ist In the distinct recognition Of its validity in
all the States where the people of those States
choose to retain it,
ID. In a solemn guarantee in the Constitution
to enforce the rights Of the owner of slaves in all
the States of the Union into which they might
make their escape.
And 3dy In according to the slave population
a representative weight in the federal councils 1t
thus became fundamental element in the struc-
ture of the new government. Political power was
claimed and accorded to our then existing and for
ever increasing slave population. Under the ope-
ration Of this feature in the Constitution, we have
at this time twenty members of the House of Rep
resentatives, and on recent occasion enjoyed the
advantage of twenty votes in the college for the
election Of a President and Vice President of the
United States. Entering into the Constitution of
the legislative and executive departm nts OF the
Government, it is an agent IN every law and in
every act of the Government. In the language OF
an eminent judge of the State of Pennsylvania I:
Slavery is the corner stone of the Constitution
''the foundations Of the Government are laid and
rest on the rights of property in slaves, and the
whole structure must fall by disturbing the corner
stone" Opinion of Judge Baldwin in the case
of johnson ". Tompkins, Bald. p. 597.)
It's, however, only to that guarantee, solemny
provided in the Constitution for the delivery of
fugitive slaves that the attention of this committee
has been specially invited.
This provision was so obvious and indispensable
80 essential TO preserve the relations of harmony
amongst the States, and to give confidence and Sc
curity to the Shareholders of the South--that II
seems, after the general basis OF the Constitution
was fixed, to have excited no opposition in the
convention but to have been adopted with abso-
lutte unanim:ty, from general acquiescence In its
necessity.
When the people of the South, were called upon
in their respective State conventions, to acs'snon
the momentous question of adopting or rejecting
che plan Of government, submitted to them by the
general convention, this provision of the Constltu-
fion attracted its full share of attention., and was
used with irresistible power by the advocates OF
the Union to relieve the apprehensions of the hes
itating, and to manifest the good faith with which
the non aveholding States had entered into this
permanent fraternal alliance. The history of that
period abounds in proofs that the South, in Civ
ing its assent to the Union, did in full reliance
upon the faithful execution of this provision as az
fording an ample and eifectual security for their
slave property.
In the Virginia convention, to satisfy the minds
of the people that this properly abundanty
protected, Edmund Randolph held this language
"Were it right to mention what passed in conven
ton on the occasion, ! might tell you that tn,
Southern States-even South Carolina herself
conceived this property to be secured by thes'
words"
In the North Carolina convention, Judge Ire
dell, referring to this clanse of the Constitution
saws, "In some of the Northern States they hav,
emancipated all their slaves. fany of our slaves
go there, and remain there certain time, they
would by the present laws be entitled to their free
dom, so that their masters could not get then
again. This would be extremely prejudical TO the
inhabitants Of the Southern States, and to prevent
it, this clause is inserted in the Constitution.
To the same purpose, but with more emphasis,
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney said to the people
of South Carolina, in the convention of that State,
awe have obtained right to recover our slaves,
in whatever part Of America they may take re-
fIge. which is right we had not BEFORE
That the importance of this provision has not
been overrated by Southern statesmen, the follow
ing extract from the opinion of the Supreme Cour,
of the United States, delivered in January, lS42,
in the case of Prigg The State Of Pennsylvania,
10 refers, y. DJJ,) VIII CoutiusiNely SHoW'
In delivering the opinion Of the court, MIR. JUS
tce Story, on page Gil, uses the following Ian
guage:
"Historicaly, it is well known that the object
of this clause TO secure to the citizen of the
slaveholding States the complete right and title Of
ownership in their slaves property, in every
State in the Union, into which they might escape
from the State where they were held in servitude.
The full recognition of this right and title was in
dispensable TO the security Of this species of pro-
perry in all the slaveholding States, and indeed
was so vital to the preservation Of their domestic
interests and institutions, that it cannot be doubt
ed, that it constituted fundamental article with
out the adoption of which the Union could not
have been formed. Its true design was to guard
against the doctrines and principles prevalent in
the nonslaveholding States, by preventing them
from intermeddng with, obstructing, or abol-
ishing the rights Of the owners OF slaves"
To the same effects the opinion of the Supreme
Court of the State Of Pennsy lvanie, as delivered
by Chief Justice Tghman, in the case of Wright
v. Deacon, 5 s. & X. 63:
"Whatever may be our opinions on the sub
ject of slavery, it is well known that our Southern
brethren would not have consented TO have be-
rtie In N Va