Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-03-17

ton nomination.
THE REQUEITIoNs.-It is known to our read
ers that Gov. DENNisoN has had acquisitions
served upon him from the State Of Virginia, in
the hope of bringing within the authority of
the gallant old dominion, the bodies of OWEN
BRowY and FRANCIS MERRIAM. These requisi-
tions were placed in the hands of the attorney
Of the State, whose reasons for non-compli-
ance, have been inclosed to Gov. LErCuER.-
After quoting the Constitutional obligation and
the act of Congress for surrender of fugitives,
the Attorney General says:
BY their very terms, no person can be
removed from one State to another, in vir-
tue of these Constitutional and statutory
provisions, except on the simultaneous oc-
currence of three distinct conditions.
l. He must have been charged in anoth-
er State, by indictment or affidavit, with
the commission there Of treason, felony or
other crime"
2. He mnst have fed that State to es-
cape its justice, and
3. Demand for his surrender-nccompa
led by an authentic copy of the indictment
or affidavit on which the demand is pred-
cated-must have been made of the ex-
ecutiye authority of the State TO which he
fed, 10y the executive authority of the
State from which the fight was made.
When these do cOncurrentIy happen, the
power to deliver results, and must be ex-
ecuted. Each, howsyer, is in the nature
Of precedent condition so that the alb
sence of any one of them is not less fatal
than the absence of all
These, and not less than these, are the
limitations with which the right of extra
diton has been carefully hedged about by
the Constitution and the act of Congress-
In the very spirit indicated by these jealous
safeguards the right ought always 10 be
exerted. For, this power which relegates
the citizen to another jurisdiction, and de-
prives him of that protection which, as q
general rule, the State owe to every So
iourner within its limits-is of so high a
nature as to exact the utmost care in its
application, even to the prescribed cases.
Every one charged with its execution should
see to it that all the securities by which it
has been SO anxiously surrounded are OBJ
served with rigorous fidelity.
The Attorney General then spreads out all
the evidence submitted by the Execu tive oi
Virginia, and shows there is not particle oil
evidence showing that these men ever fed from
Virginia, and nothing to show that they ever
we're in Virginia, save the allegation in the in
dictment--'that the ofense was there commit.
ted The Attorney General then concludes
thus
These considerations, it seems to me, are
entirely decisive. For the reason that the
requisition, with its annexed documents, "
furnishes no evidence of the fight of Mer-
riam from Virginia, it altogether fails, in
my judgment to make out a case which will
warrant the extradtion. Whether this de-
feet can be cured is a question which ad.
dresses itself solely to the authorities of
that State. Finding one barrier to the ex-
ercise of the authority invoked by this re-
QUESTION, it has not seemed proper to in
quire as to the existence of any other
For all present purposes, it is enough to
know that as the case now stands, the OBJ
lection is fatal.