To me, Sir, regarding this matter in the light of the Common Law and in the blaze of free institutions, it has always seemed impossible to arrive at any other conclusion. If the language of the Constitution were open to doubt, which it is not, still all the presumptions of law, all the leanings to Freedom, all the suggestions of justice, plead angel-tongued for this right. Nobody doubts that Congress, if it legislates on this matter, _may_ allow a Trial by Jury. But if it _may_, so overwhelming is the claim of justice, it MUST. Beyond this, however, the question is determined by the precise letter of the Constitution. Several expressions in the provision for the surrender of fugitives from service show the essential character of the proceedings. In the first place, the person must be, not merely _charged_, as in the case of fugitives from justice, but actually _held to service_ in the State from which he escaped. In the second place, he must "be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be _due_." These two facts, that he was _held_ to service, and that his service was _due_ to his claimant, are directly placed in issue, and must be proved. Two necessary incidents of the delivery may also be observed. First, it is made in the State where the fugitive is found; and, secondly, it restores to the claimant complete control over the person of the fugitive. From these circumstances it is evident that the proceedings cannot be regarded, in any just sense, as preliminary, or ancillary to some future formal trial, but as complete in themselves, final and conclusive. These proceedings determine on the one side the question of Property, and on the other the sacred question of Personal Liberty in its most transcendent form,--Liberty not merely for a day or a year, but for life, and the Liberty of generations that shall come after, so long as Slavery endures. To these questions the Constitution, by two specific provisions, attaches Trial by Jury. One is the familiar clause, already adduced: "No _person_ shall be deprived of life, _liberty_, or property, _without due process of law_,"--that is, without due proceeding at law, with Trial by Jury. Not stopping to dwell on this, I press at once to the other provision, which is still more express: "In suits at Common Law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of Trial by Jury shall be preserved." This clause, which does not appear in the Constitution as first adopted, was suggested by the very spirit of Freedom. At the close of the National Convention, Elbridge Gerry refused to sign the Constitution because, among other things, it established "a tribunal _without juries_, a Star Chamber as to civil cases."[170] Many united in his opposition, and on the recommendation of the First Congress this additional safeguard was adopted as an amendment. [170] Madison's Debates, Sept. 15, 1787.