ARTICLE IV.

SECTION II.

Clause 3.- No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into 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 due.

Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England, adopted in 1643.

"It is also agreed, that if any servant run away from his master into any other of these confederated jurisdictions, that in such case, upon the certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof, the said servant shall be delivered either to his master or to any other that pursues and brings such certificate or proof."

In the Constitutional Convention - The clause requiring the rendition of fugitives from justice to be delivered up, being under consideration,

Mr. BUTLER and Mr. C. PINCKNEY, "moved to require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals."

Mr. WILSON suggested that the effect of that proposi

tion would be to "oblige the executive of a State to do it at the public expense.

Mr. SHERMAN "saw no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering a slave or servant than a horse."

Mr. BUTLER then withdrew the proposition, and at a subsequent day moved it, as an independent proposition, as follows:

"If any person bound to service or labor in any of the United States shall escape into another State, he shall not be discharged from such service or labor, in consequence of any regulations subsisting in the State to which they escape, but shall be delivered up to the person justly claiming their service or labor." This was now agreed to without a division, being regarded as a part of the compromise for the authority given to Congress to pass navigation laws by majority vote.

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Mr. MADISON says, that when this article, as reported by the committee of style and arrangement, was under consideration, "on motion of Mr. RANDOLPH, the word 'servitude' was struck out and service,' unanimously inserted, the former being thought to express the condition of slaves, and the latter the obligation of free persons."

Judicial Constructions.

This includes apprentices.

Bouler v. Cuin, 1 Am. Law Rep. 654.

This does not extend to the case of a slave voluntarily carried by his master into another State, and there leaving him under the protection of some law declaring him. free. Vaughan v. Williams, 3 McLean, 530. Slavery is a municipal regulation; is local, and cannot exist without authority of law. Miller v. McQuerry, 5 McLean, 469. But the question, whether slaves are made free by going

into a State in which slavery is not tolerated, with the permission of their master, is purely one of local law, and to be determined by the courts of the State in which they are found. Stroder v. Graham, 10 Howard, 82; Dred Scott v. Sanford, 19 How. 396.

The owner of a slave is clothed with full authority in every State of the Union, to seize and recapture his slave, whenever he can do it without a breach of the peace or any illegal violence. Prigg v. Pa. 16 Pet. 539. But it is under the Constitution and laws of the United States only, that the owner of a slave has a right to reclaim him in a State where slavery does not exist. There is no principle in the common law, in the law of nations or of nature which authorizes such recapture. Giltna v. Gorham, 4 McLean, 412. The Constitution recognizes slaves as property, and pledges the general government to protect it. Dred Scott v. San. 19 How. 395.

A statute which punishes harboring or secreting a slave is not unconstitutional. Moore v. Illinois, 14 How. 13.

The 2d Sec. 4th Art. of the Constitution, does not extend to a slave voluntarily carried by his master into another State and then left under the protection of a law declaring him free, but to slaves escaping from one State to another. Butler v. Hopper, 1 Wash. C. C. R. 499.

ARTICLE IV.

SECTION III.

Clause 1.- New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress.

Articles of Confederation. -" Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union, but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States."

Mr. RANDOLPH'S PLAN."That provision ought to be made for the admission of States lawfully arising within the limits of the United States, whether from a voluntary junction of government and territory or otherwise, with the consent of a number of voices in the national legislature less than the whole."

Mr. PINCKNEY'S PLAN." The legislature shall have power to admit new States into the Union on the same terms with the original States, provided that two thirds of the members present in both houses agree."

Mr. PATTERSON'S (N. J.) PLAN.-"That provision be made for the admission of new States into the Union." These several propositions having been considered in the committee of the whole, they reported the following:

"That provision ought to be made for the admission of States, lawfully arising within the limits of the United States, whether from a voluntary junction of government and territory, or otherwise, with the consent of a number of voices in the national legislature, less than the whole.” The Convention concurred in this report, and sent the clause to the committee of detail.

Report of Committee of Detail.-"New States, lawfully constituted or established within the limits of the United States, may be admitted by the legislature, into this government; but to such admission, the consent of two thirds of the members present in each house, shall be necessary. If a new State shall arise within the limits of any of the present States, the consent of the legislatures of such States shall also be necessary to its admission. If the admission be consented to, the new States shall be admitted on the same terms with the original States. But the legislature may make conditions with the new States concerning the public debt which shall be then subsisting."

Mr. MORRIS moved to strike out, "If the admission be consented to," &c., to the end of the paragraph, not wishing to bind Congress to admit the western States on such terms.

Mr. MADISON insisted that the "western States neither would nor ought to submit to a union which degraded them from an equal rank with the other States."

Mr. SHERMAN was for equality among the States.

Mr. WILLIAMSON was for leaving the terms to Congress. Mr. MORRIS having modified his motion, it was adopted in the following form: