tended, they will be so. We do not mean to anticipate any failure in this respect; but if, in the progress of its administration, any practical difficulties should be encountered, rendering it inadequate to the plenary accomplishment of its purposes, we trust the defect will be promptly and speedily supplied by future and more efficient legislation, and by a corresponding energy in the execution.

§ 187. The second subject of this 2d section is Fugitives from Justice. In regard to them, the constitutional provision is, "A person charged, in any State, with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime." This clause, like the one preceding and succeeding it, as well as many others, is destitute of any special provision authorizing Congress to enact laws for its execution; and its execution was at first attempted without any legislation whatever. In 1791, a free man was seized in Pennsylvania, where he belonged, carried into Virginia, and sold there as a slave. The offender was indicted in Pennsylvania, and, by the authority of the Governor, demanded for trial and punishment from the Governor of Virginia, where he was found, and the delivery refused. The Governor of Virginia, by the advice of his Attorney

General, held that the clause gave him no authority to seize and transport a man from Virginia to Pennsylvania for such a purpose, and he had none otherwise.

§ 188. The Governor of Pennsylvania sent all the papers to the President, who laid them before Congress, and they thereupon passed the Act of Feb. 12, 1793. It is thereby enacted, that it shall be the duty of the executive authority of the State or Territory to which such person shall have fled, to cause him or her to be arrested and secured, and notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent;" with other appropriate provisions for his transportation to the place from whence he fled, and for the punishment of any forcible interference therewith. These provisions have been in actual practical use in every State in the Union, from the time of their enactment till the present, and are still in full force. So far as is known, the power of Congress to make them has never been doubted or questioned by anybody.

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§ 189. The phrase, a person charged," is understood by the statute technically; and a duly authenticated copy of the indictment, or affidavit before a magistrate, by which the charge is made, is to be produced as the foundation of the demand; and then the statute addresses itself to

the executive authority of the State as a part of the machinery of the government, and deals with it, as the Constitution does with the States themselves, their governments, and people, as subjects bound to obey, and, if need be, to assist in the administration of the supreme law of the land. The existence and continuance of this statute, on a subject in constant use, and with universal acquiescence, in addition to many others elsewhere cited of a similar character, affords the strongest possible evidence of the general understanding, that the power and duty of Congress authorize and require them to legislate for the enforcement and execution of every part of the Constitution, and particularly of every precept, right, principle, or prohibition it contains. There never has been any question in regard to their duty to legislate for the execution of this provision of the Constitution, nor in regard to the validity and constitutionality of the provisions of this particular statute for that purpose.

CHAPTER XV.

LEGISLATIVE POWERS.-GENERAL.

§ 190. THE third and last subject of this second section is Fugitives from Labor. The provision is of the same character with the two preceding ones, in respect of means of execution and invocation of special legislative power. It is in these words: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping to another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be duc."

§ 191. The Convention had been engaged, from May to August, in discussing and amending the Virginia Plan. They had successfully encountered and settled the vexed questions, between a government proper of the people, and a confederation or league of States; the relative power or position of the individual States in the new government; and the rule of apportionment of representation and direct taxation, by num

bers, without regard to race, color, or descent. But the Virginia Plan introduced no subject that necessarily involved the consideration of slavery; so that, thus far, slavery, whether by law or against law, was unknown to the Constitution. The original fifteen Resolutions, introduced by Mr. Randolph, had expanded, under the hands of the Convention, to twenty-three distinct propositions, which, at the end of that time, went into the hands of the Committee of Detail, to report a Constitution conformable thereto."

§ 192. The South-Carolina Plan also, without any examination or sanction of the Convention, and without instructions, went into the hands of the same committee, of which Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, was chairman. The SouthCarolina Plan contained provisions limiting the commercial power, prohibiting the taxation of persons or exports, and requiring the rendition of fugitives, all subjects looking directly to the condition of slavery, the proceeds of slave labor, and the continuance of the slave-trade. None of these subjects had been discussed in the Convention; but, the day before the committee were appointed, General Pinckney forewarned the Convention, that, if the committee should fail to provide security against the emancipation of slaves and the taxation of exports, he should oppose their report.

§ 193. The Convention had the benefit of this hint in the selection of their committee, and the