From the very language employed, it is obvious that this is merely a _compact_ between the States, with a _prohibition_ on the States, _conferring no power on the Nation_. In its natural signification it is a compact. According to examples of other countries, and principles of jurisprudence, it is a compact. Arrangements for extradition of fugitives have been customarily compacts. Except under express obligations of treaty, no nation is bound to surrender fugitives. Especially has this been the case with fugitives for Freedom. In mediæval Europe cities refused to recognize this obligation in favor of persons even under the same National Government. In 1531, while the Netherlands and Spain were united under Charles the Fifth, the Supreme Council of Mechlin rejected an application from Spain for the surrender of a fugitive slave. By express compact alone could this be secured. But the provision of the Constitution was borrowed from the Ordinance of the Northwestern Territory,[202] which is expressly declared to be a compact; and this Ordinance, finally drawn by Nathan Dane, was itself borrowed, in distinctive feature, from the early institutions of Massachusetts, among which, as far back as 1643, was a compact of like nature with other New England States.[203] Thus this provision is a compact in language, in nature, in its whole history; as we have already seen, it is a compact according to the intentions of our fathers and the genius of our institutions. [202] "ART. VI. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid."--_Ordinance for the Government of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio_, July 13, 1787: Journals of Congress, Vol. XII. pp. 92, 93. [203] "8.... It is also agreed, that if any servant run away from his master into any of the confederate jurisdictions, that in such case (upon certificate from one magistrate in the jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof) the said servant shall be either delivered to his master or any other that pursues and brings such certificate and proof."--_Articles of Confederation between the Plantations_, etc., May 29, 1643: Hubbard's History of New England, p. 472.