The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-09-18
THE FUGITIVE LAW-ANOTHER De
CISION

SEC. 10. And be al further enacted. That
when any person held to service or labor in any
State or Territory. or in the District of Column
bia, shall escape therefrom, the party to whom
such service or labor shall be due, his, her, or
their agent or attorney may apply to any court
of record therein, or Judge thereof in vacation
and make satisfactory proof to such court or
judge in vacation, and make satisfactory proof
to such court or judge in vacation, of the es-
cape aforesaid, and that the person escaping
owed service or labor to such party Where
upon the court shall cause record to be made
of the matters so proved, and also general
description of the person so escaping, with such
convenient certainty rs may be; and tran
script of such record authenticated by the attes-
tation of the clerk and the seal the said court
being produced in any other State, Territory
or District, in which the person 80 escaping may
be found, and being exhibited to any judge
! commissioner. or other officer authorized by the
law of the United States to cause persons escap-
| ing from service or labor to be delivered up
shall be held and taken to be full and conclu-
siye evidence of the fact of escape, and that the
service or labor of the person escaping is due to
the party in such record mentioned. And upon
the production by the said party Of other and
further evidence if necessary, either oral or by
affidavit in addition to what is contained in the
said record of the identity of the person escaping
he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant.
And the said court commissioner, judge, or
other person authorized by this act to grant
certificates to claimants of fugitives, shall, upon
the production of the record and other evidences
aforesaid. grant to such claimant certificate of
his rights to take any such person identified and
proved to be owing service or labor as aforesaid,
which certificate shall authorize such claimant
to seize Or arrcsA Sss,, y, ,s,,nrsof> A4&l- 90
the State or Territory from which he escaped
Prouded, That nothing herein contained shall
be construed as requiring the production of a
transcript of such record as evidence as aforesaid
But in its absence, the claim shall be heard and
determined upon other satisfactory proofs CON-
potent in law"
Under this section, Daniel Davis, a colored per-
son, was lately seized in Buffalo, and claimed
as the fugitive slave of George ]. Moore of Ken
lucky The agent of the claimant submitted
to Commissioner Smith the transcript of re-
cord of Jefferson county, KY stating that it had
been proved to the satisfaction of that court by
the afidavits of two persons therein named, that
the petitioner owed service to the claimant, and
that he had on or about the 9th day of August,
1850, escaped therefrom into the State of Ohio.
1t was proved by the son of the claimant that
his father hired out Davis as steward and cook
to the master of q steamboat running between
Cincinnati and Louisville, that he knew of the
steamer once going, with Davis on board, to the
former place, and that he did not return thence.
1t is a well-settled principle of Law in the free
States and the current of Judicial decisions in
the slave States is in favor of it. that a slave
permitted by his master to 60 into free State,
and escaping there, cannot be reclaimed under
the provisions of the Constitution in relation to
fngitives, inasmuch rs this enjoins the surren-
der only of those persons who, being held to
service OF labor in one State under the laws
thereof, escape into another The case of Davis
was not within the scope of this provision, for
he did not escape into Ohio, but was permitted
by his master to 60 to Ohio, and when there,
being held to service under no law he simply
asserted his right as n freeman, in refusing to
return There was no escape within the mean
ing of the Constitution.
The Commissioner, in the face Of the Law as
established by the highest authority, ventured
the extra judicial opinion, that shareholders
have the constitutional right to travel through
the free States, with their slaves, and to take
them away with them!
But, not on this ground was the case decided
He refused to try it upon its merits-nor would
he wait till Il messenger despatched to call a
witness for the prisoner had time to return. He
held that the record evidence submitted was
conclusive, and with hot haste issued the order
for the removal of the alleged fugitive.
A writ was forthwith obtained by which the
case was taken before Judge Conklin, of the
United States District Court. The argument
by the counsel for the prisoner and the claim
ant occupied the 26th and 9th of August On
the second day thereafter, the Court delivered
its opinion, allowing the hdbeas corpus the
next day the prisoner was discharged, and i'm
mediately conveyed to Canada. We present
the material part of the opinion, containing the
ground on which the habeas corpus was grant
ed:
"1he claimant saw fit to avail himself of the
provisions of the 10th section of the act by
which the owner of fugitive slave is permitted
to make proof Of the main facts Of title and
escape before a court of record, or some judge
thereof in the State whence the escape was
made, and having obtained transcript Of the
record, which such court il required to make,
of the matters 20 proved, to exhibit the same to
the Judge or commissioner, to whom applica-
ton shall be made, in the State where the fugi-
tive shall be found, as conclusive evidence OF
the facts therein stated. Such record was
produced before the court in the present case
and is distinctly stated in the certificate to
have formed the basis of this action in the
premises 1t was suggested at the argument
though apparently with no great confidence,
that the commissioner might by possibility
have had other competent evidence before him
but am clearly of opinion that no such sup
position is admissible.
There is not in the papers before me, the
slightest intimaton to this effect but on the
contrary the transcript is exclusively referred
to throughout rs the evidence by which the
title Of the claimant and the fhct Of escape were
established. But the escape is also throughout
alleged to have occurred on or about the 25th
day Of August 1880 whereas, the act was not
passed until the 18th of September following
and it is upon these dates that the objection is
founded The language of the 10th section Of
the act is this And be ii further enacted, That
when any person held to labor or service, in
any State or Territory or in the District Of
Columbia shall escape therefroul the party to
whom such service or labor is due, his, her, or
their agent or attorney, may apply to any court
of record therein, or Judge thereof in vacation,
and make satisfactory proof &c.
"Now il is insisted that this provision is clear
ly prospective, and therefore inspplicable to the
case Of An escape from labor or service occur
ring before the passage Of the act and such,
am constrained TO say, appears, 10 me 10 be the
plain sense of the enactment ID was agreed by
tho eonnsal Cor the claim ant that thia heins "A