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Page 63
In the course of the Convention other plans were brought forward: on
the 15th of June, aseries of eleven propositions by Mr. Paterson, of
New Jersey, "so as to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the
exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union"; on the 18th
June, eleven propositions by Mr. Hamilton, of New York, "containing his
ideas of a suitable plan of Government for the United States" and on the
19th June, Mr. Randolph's resolutions, originally offered on the 29th
May, "as altered, amended, and agreed to in Committee of the Whole
House." On the 26th July, twenty-three resolutions, already adopted
on different days in the Convention, were referred to a "Committee of
Detail," for reduction to the form of a Constitution. On the 6th August
this Committee reported the finished draft of a Constitution. And yet
in all these resolutions, plans, and drafts, seven in number, proceeding
from eminent members and from able committees, no allusion is made to
fugitive slaves. For three months the Convention was in session, and not
a word uttered on this subject.
At last, on the 28th August, as the Convention was drawing to a close,
on the consideration of the article providing for the privileges of
citizens in different States, we meet the first reference to this
matter, in words worthy of note. "General (Charles Cotesworth) Pinckney
was not satisfied with it. He SEEMED to wish some provision should be
included in favor of property in slaves." But he made no proposition.
Unwilling to shock the Convention, and uncertain in his own mind, he
only seemed to wish such a provision. In this vague expression of a
vague desire this idea first appeared. In this modest, hesitating phrase
is the germ of the audacious, unhesitating Slave Act. Here is the little
vapor, which has since swollen, as in the Arabian tale, to the power and
dimensions of a giant. The next article under discussion provided for
the surrender of fugitives from justice. Mr. Butler and Mr. Charles
Pinckney, both from South Carolina, now moved openly to require
"fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals." Here
was no disguise. With Hamlet, it was now said in spirit,
"Seems, Madam! Nay it is. I know not seems."
But the very boldness of the effort drew attention and opposition. Mr.
Wilson, of Pennsylvania, the learned jurist and excellent man, at once
objected: "This would oblige the Executive of the State to do it at the
public expense." Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, "saw no more propriety in
the public seizing and surrendering a slave or servant than a horse."
Under the pressure of these objections, the offensive proposition was
withdrawn,--never more to be renewed. The article for the surrender of
criminals was then unanimously adopted. On the next day, 29th
August, profiting by the suggestions already made, Mr. Butler moved
a proposition,--substantially like that now found in the
Constitution,--for the surrender, not of "fugitive slaves," as
originally proposed, but simply of "persons bound to service or labor,"
which, without debate or opposition of any kind, was unanimously
adopted.'
Here, palpably, was no labor of compromise, no adjustment of conflicting
interest,--nor even any expression of solicitude. The clause finally
adopted was vague and faint as the original suggestion. In its natural
import it is not applicable to slaves. If supposed by some to
be applicable, it is clear that it was supposed by others to be
inapplicable. It is now insisted that the term "persons bound to
service," or "held to service," as expressed in the final revision, is
the equivalent or synonym for "slaves." This interpretation is rebuked
by an incident to which reference has been already made, but which will
bear repetition. On the 13th September--a little more than a fortnight
after the clause was adopted, and when, if deemed to be of any
significance, it could not have been forgotten--the very word "service,"
came under debate, and received a fixed meaning. It was unanimously
adopted as a substitute for "servitude" in another part of the
Constitution, for the reason that it expressed "the obligations of free
persons," while the other expressed "the condition of slaves." In
the face of this authentic evidence, reported by Mr. Madison, it is
difficult to see how the term "persons held to service" can be deemed to
express anything beyond the "obligations of free persons." Thus, in the
light of calm inquiry, does this exaggerated clause lose its importance.
The provision, showing itself thus tardily, and so slightly regarded in
the National Convention, was neglected in much of the contemporaneous
discussion before the people. In the Conventions of South Carolina,
North Carolina,and Virginia, it was commended as securing important
rights, though on this point there was difference of opinion. In the
Virginia Convention, an eminent character, Mr. George Mason, with
others, expressly declared that there was "no security of property
coming within this section." In the other Conventions it was
disregarded. Massachusetts, while exhibiting peculiar sensitiveness at
any responsibility for slavery, seemed to view it with unconcern. One
of her leading statesmen, General Heath, in the debates of the State
Convention, strenuously asserted, that, in ratifying the Constitution,
the people of Massachusetts "would do nothing to hold the blacks in
slavery." "_The Federalist_," in its classification of the powers of
Congress, describes and groups a large number as "those which provide
for the harmony and proper intercourse among the States," and
therein speaks of the power over public records, standing next in the
Constitution to the provision concerning fugitives from service; but it
fails to recognize the latter among the means of promoting "harmony and
proper intercourse;" nor does its triumvirate of authors anywhere allude
to the provision.
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