Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-03-17

1850 EONpkhlbluk NUobb iiuiNNdNlOubt " blUnVl1 ut-
6nes the mode in which the power, as established
BY the Constitution, shall be executed. This pow
err, both as to the condition Of it's existence, and
the manner Of its exercise, is Of the most special
and limited nature. By their very terms, no pei
son can be removed from one State to another,
in virtue Of these Constitutional and statutory pro.
visions, except on the simultaneous occurrence
Of three distinct conditions.
l. lie must have boen charged in an 5ther State.
By indictment or affidavit, with the commission
there of treason, felony or other crime
2. lie must have aed from that State to escape
lite justice. and
3. Demand for bis .urrender-accompanied BY
an authentic copy Of the indictment or affidavit on
which the demand is predicated-must have been
made OF the executive authority Of the State ID
which he fed, by the executive authority Of the
State from which the flight was made.
When these do concurreptly happen, the power
TO deliver results, and must be executed. Each
however, is in the nature Of a precedent condition
so that the absence of any one of them is not lesi
fatal than the absence Of all.
These, and not less than these. are the limita
lions with which the right IF extradition has beer
carefully hedged about by the Constitution and tn,
act OF Congress. In the very spirit indicated by
these jealous safeguards the right ought always &c
be ezer'sd. For, this power, which r~elegates th,
citizen to another jurisdiction, and deprives him
OF that protection which, as a general rule, the
state owes to every sCjourner within it's limits lis
OF so high a nature as to exact the utmost care in
it's application. even to the prescribed cases. Ev.
cry one charged with its execution should see to il
that all the securities by which it has been 30 anx
iously surrounded are observed with rigorous 6del.
ity.
Examining, in the light Of these rules, the re.
QUESTION for Merriam, it will at once be seen that
no case is made for the exercise Of this power.
There is no allegation, still less is there any evi.
dence, that Merriam ever fed from the State of
Virginia. True, the preamble to the reouisition
recites that ait appears 10y the annexed documents
that Merriam is a fugitive from justice from Vir-
ginia," but this recital does not accord with the
fact. No Fight whatever lie shown by the 'docu.
mentS annexed These, as previously stated, con-
sist only of the copy of an indictment found
against Merriam in a Virginia Court, with such
N'N 10 WI uSOlIC necessary
to establish its authentic nature. In all these
documents" from the beginning to the end, there
is no word, no letter, from which human ingenui-
~ can draw the vaguest hint that Merriam had
Ged from Virginia. Nay, more, shere is nothing
to show that he was ever within the State, save the
allegation in the indictment. that the ofense of
which he was accused was there committed. Ger
taiDly, this is not conclusive as to the fact of his
For this formal averment Of venue
would equally have been made because essential
to every Observation-Disclosures the part born BY
Merriam in the alleged conspiracy and offence had
been acted altogether within or altogether without
the limits of the State. In its legal effect, this
is entirely consistent with the hypothesis
that he has nevor been within the boundaries of
Virginia. Granting, however, that this declara-
ton imports tho actual presence of Merriam at the
place where the commission of the offense is laid,
It still remains true that there is absolutely moth
ing in the papers accompanying the requisition,
to indicate that he has since fed from, or otherwise
left the State. If within it then, he NAV for
lught that appears in those papers, have continu-
ously bided there up to the very moment when
the requisit.on was made. or even until now. Nor
IS there anything in the rcquisition itself which
,an supply this defect in its''annexed Documents"
rs that nowhere AYERS a flight oy Merriam. 1t
merely refers TO these documents" as giving evil
iences of such flight, and does nothing more
These. as has been seen, do not furnish any evil
whatever upon that subject, SO that the
stands without even an allegation Of the exis.
ence of this vital condition.
r. ,f - .La.Il - - -
he roquisition is tantamouut to a direct assertion
hat Merriam was. in the language of tina. recital,
IA fugitive from justice from Virginia." the ad-
Mission would avail nothing. That assertion is by
10 means equivalent to an avermeut that he fed
rom the State to elude it's justice. 1t may lead to
o an inference Of actual flight. or it may mean a
onstructire one only. Whether it mean The one or
he other, it is sufficient to cay that this extraordi-
power is NOS to be exercised on a surmise or
Beyond this. however. no mere iorma-
/ unsworn allegation of flight, be it never SO clear
md unequivocal, can be deemed sufficient. In
his, as in all other proceedings which affect the
OF personal liberty, every fact on which the
of removal der ends must be established by
lue and satisfactory evidence. The necessity of in
listing on rigid proof of flight will not be doubted
y any one familiar with the fact that, in some of
be States a practice has grown up of demanding
he surrender, as "fugitives from justice from
hose States" of persons who have neve. been
1ithin their limits. on the legal fiction Of con-
tructive presence and a constructive light. 1t is
OF known that this practice has obtained in
ireinia. nor is itmaterial to enquire, as all re-
from whatever State must be governed
y a uniform law, moreover while this custom suf-
GENTLY vindicates the p~ropriety of the rule, the
ale itself rests on larger foundations. 1t grows
u: of the very nature of the power. The immuni-
of the citizen from arrest and exile would stand
n the frailest ground, if held subject 30 the m ere
nVerrifed declaration Of even the highest fupc.
onary in the land 1t is not too much to say that
power SO arbitrary can have no Ia wful existence
a free government.
These considerations. it seems to me, are entire.
decisive. For the reason that the requisitiou, |