all of the States, and although there still remained in all of them excepting Massachusetts some persons of the African race still held in that condition, was likely soon to disappear from the States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, under changes that would be introduced by their constitutions or by statutory provision. In the whole of New England, therefore, and in nearly all of the Middle States excepting Maryland, if the principles of the common law and of the law of nations were to be applied to such cases, the relation of master and slave, existing under the law of another State, could not be recognized, and there could be no means of enforcing a return to the jurisdiction which gave to the master a right to the custody and services of the slave. At the same time, it was apparent that, in the five States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, slavery would not only be likely to continue for a very long period of time, but that this form of labor constituted, and would be likely long to constitute, a necessary part of their social system. The theory on which the previous Union had been framed, and on which the new Union now intended to be consummated was expressly to be founded, was, that the domestic institutions of the States were exclusively matters of State jurisdiction. But if a relation between persons, existing by the law of a particular State, was to be broken up by an escape into another State, by reason of the fact that such a relation was unknown to or prohibited by the law of the place to which the party had fled, it was obvious that this theory of the Union would be of very little practical value to the States in which such a relation was to exist, and to be one of great importance. If the territory of every State in which this relation was not to be recognized, were to be made an asylum for fugitives, the right of the master to the services of the slave would be wholly insecure. It was in reference to this anticipated condition of things, that General Pinckney of South Carolina, at the time when the principles that were to be the basis of the Constitution were sent to the committee of detail,' gave notice, that, unless some provision should be inserted in their report to prevent this consequential emancipation, he should vote against the Constitution. Considering the position and influence of this gentleman, his declaration was equivalent to a notice that, without such a provision, the Constitution would not be accepted by the State which he represented. Still, the committee of detail omitted to make any such special provision in their report of a Constitution, and inserted only a general article that the citizens of each State should be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. General Pinckney was not satisfied with this, and renewed his demand for a provision "in favor of property in slaves." 3 1 July 23d. Elliot, V. 357. 2 Art. XIV. of the report of the committee of detail. 3 These are the words of Mr. Madison's Minutes. Elliot, V. 487. This was on the 26th of August. But the article was adopted, South Carolina voting against it, and the vote of Georgia being divided. 1 As soon, however, as the next article was taken up, which required the surrender of fugitives from justice escaping from one State into another, the South Carolina members moved to require "fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up, like criminals." Objection was made, that this would require the executive of the State to do it at the public expense, and that there was no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering a slave or a servant, than a horse. The proposition was then withdrawn, in order that a particular provision might be framed, apart from the article requiring the surrender of fugitives from justice. That article was then adopted without opposition.* For a provision respecting fugitives from service, the movers had two remarkable precedents to which they could resort, and which had settled the correctness of the principle involved. Negro slavery, as well as other forms of service, had existed in the New England Colonies at a very early period. In 1643, the four Colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven had formed a confederation, in which, among other things, they had mutually stipulated with each other for the restoration of runaway "servants"; and there is indu I Madison, ut supra. The motion was made by Butler and Pinckney, according to Mr. Madison. 2 By Wilson. 3 By Sherman. 4 Madison, ut supra. August 28. bitable evidence, that African slaves, as well as other persons in servitude, were included in this provision.' The other 'precedent was found in the Ordinance which had just been adopted by Congress for the settlement and government of the Territory north 1 The reader who will consult a paper in the fourth volume of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (p. 194), written by Dr. Belknap, in 1795, will find that slavery, in the sense in which the term is now commonly understood, existed in Massachusetts Bay as early as 1630. The proof of it consists, 1. In the provisions of the colonial laws and ordinances, which recognize and regulate a relation very different from that of service for hire. On this subject, the early colonists of Massachusetts held and practised the law of Moses. They regarded it as lawful to buy and sell "slaves taken in lawful war," or reduced to servitude by judicial sentence, and placed them under the same privileges as those given by the Mosaic law. But they punished man-stealing capitally, re-enacting expressly the 16th verse of the 21st chapter of Exodus; and when there were any negroes in their jurisdiction who had been stolen, or "fraudulently" acquired in Africa, they endeavored to send them back again. 2. In the actual presence of negro slaves, brought from Africa, who had been "lawfully" acquired, that is, by fair purchase from those who held them as pris oners of war. some extent in the Colony in 1638, and were numerous in 1673; and of course were included in all the legislation of that period respecting service, being sometimes described as "slaves," and sometimes by the more general and comprehensive term of "servants."- Slavery by judicial sentence was inflicted for no higher crimes than theft and burglary. Thus at a Quarter Court holden at Boston the 4th day of the 10th month, 1638, "John Hazlewood being found guilty of severall thefts and breaking into severall houses, was censured to be severely whipped and delivered up a slave to whom the Court shall appoint." (Shurtleff's Edition of Records of Massachusetts, I. 246.) Many of the Indians taken prisoners in King Philip's war, who had formerly submitted to the Colonial government and had been called "Praying Indians" from their supposed conversion to Christianity, were adjudged guilty of "rebellion," and were sold into slavery in foreign countries. Dr. Belknap says that some of them found their way back again, and took a severe revenge on the English in a subsequent war. (Hist. Soc. Coll. ut supra.) These existed to west of the river Ohio; in which, when legislating for the perpetual exclusion of "slavery or involuntary servitude," a similar provision was made for the surrender of persons escaping into the Territory, "from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States." In making this provision, the early colonists of New England, and the Congress of the Confederation, had acted upon a principle directly opposite to the objection that was raised in the formation of the Constitution of the United States. When it was said in the Convention, that the public authority ought no more to interfere and surrender a fugitive slave or servant than a horse, it was forgotten that, by the principles of the common law and the comity of nations, not only is property in movable things recognized by civilized states, but a remedy is afforded for restitution. But in the case of a fugitive person, from whom, by the law of the community from which he escapes, service is due to another, the right to the service is not recognized by the common law or the law of nations, and no means exist of enforcing the duties of the relation. If the case is to be met at all, therefore, it can only be by a special provision, in the nature of a treaty, which will so far admit the relation and the claim of service, as to make them the foundation of a right to restore the individual to the jurisdiction of that law which recognizes and enforces its duties. This was precisely what was done by the New England Confederation of 1643, and the Ordinance |