And yet a commissioner, dressed in the smallest and briefest authority, is put forward to determine this great case under the Constitution, and his judgment is declared final, and even without appeal. The Fugitive Slave Act proclaims expressly that he “shall have _concurrent jurisdiction_ with the judges of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States”; that he shall “hear and determine the case of the claimant in a summary manner”; and that his certificate “shall be conclusive of the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted to remove such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, _and shall prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever_.”[369] Such are the plenary powers conferred upon the commissioner, together with an eminent jurisdiction concurrent with judges of the Circuit and District Courts. This Act, as originally introduced by Mr. Butler, before the substitute of Mr. Mason, intrusted this _concurrent jurisdiction_ to the whole army of postmasters; but a trumpery commissioner, appointed by a court, is as little entitled to exercise it as a postmaster. It is not doubted, that, under existing statutes, a commissioner may be appointed to take depositions and acknowledgments of bail, and also to arrest, examine, and detain offenders for trial. Thus much a court may authorize; _but a court cannot delegate to a commissioner the power of trying a cause_, whether “a suit at Common Law,” or “a case arising under the Constitution”; _nor can Congress authorize a court to delegate this power_. The whole pretension is a discredit to the jurisprudence of the country. Such are three principal objections to the constitutionality of this Act. One alone is enough. The three together are more than enough. OTHER OBJECTIONS TO THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. But there are other objections, to which the Committee merely allude. The offensive Act, defying the whole Law of Evidence, authorizes a judgment which despoils a man of his liberty on _ex parte_ testimony, by affidavit, without the sanction of cross-examination. It practically denies the writ of _Habeas Corpus_, ever known as the palladium of the citizen. Contrary to the purposes declared by the framers of the Constitution, it sends the fugitive back “at the public expense.”[370] Adding meanness to violation of the Constitution, it bribes the commissioner by a double fee to pronounce against Freedom. If he dooms a man to Slavery, the reward is ten dollars; but saving him to Freedom, his dole is five dollars. As it is for the public weal that there should be an end of suits, so, by the consent of civilized nations, these must be instituted within fixed limitations of time; but the Fugitive Act, exalting Slavery above even this practical principle of universal justice, ordains proceedings against Freedom without reference to lapse of time.