Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865)McDougall, Marion Gleason
History
Fugitive Slaves (1619-1865)
McDougall, Marion Gleason
Fugitive slaves -- United States; Slavery -- Law and legislation -- United States
On the matter being brought to the notice of Congress by the Governor of
Pennsylvania,[62] a Committee, consisting of Mr. Sedgwick, Mr. Bourne of
Massachusetts, and Mr. White, was appointed in the House of
Representatives to bring in a bill or bills "providing the means by which
persons charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who
shall flee from justice, shall, on the demand of the executive authority
of the State from which they fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the
State having jurisdiction of the crime; also providing the mode by which
a person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due."[63]
A bill prepared by the House committee, of which Mr. Sedgwick was
chairman, was reported, November 15, 1791;[64] but for some reason which
does not appear, it was dropped, and a Senate committee, of which Calvert
was chairman, was appointed, March 30, 1792, "to consider the expediency
[of] a bill respecting fugitives from justice and from the service of
their masters."[65] Nothing was done during this session, and, November
22, 1792, a second Senate committee was appointed, consisting of
Johnston, Calvert, and Read,[66] and they submitted a bill, December 20,
1792.[67] Unfortunately, we have no details of the debate; but on
December 28, a third Senate committee was appointed by adding Taylor and
Sherman to the committee of November 22, and to them the bill was
recommitted with instructions to amend.[68] At last, January 3, 1793, the
bill was reported in a form not unlike that finally agreed upon.[69] Of
the amendments offered, the text of only one is preserved in the
Journals; it was for the insertion of a less sum than five hundred
dollars as the penalty for harboring a fugitive, or resisting his
arrest.[70] It was not adopted. After two debates, of which we have no
record, the bill passed the Senate, January 18.[71] In the House it seems
to have elicited little discussion, and it passed, February 5, by a vote
of 48 to 7.[72] The bill became law by the signature of the President,
February 12, 1793.[73]
In thus uniting with the clause providing for the extradition of
fugitives from justice one requiring the return of fugitive slaves,
Congress was but following examples set in 1643 by the Articles of
Confederation,[74] and again in 1787 by the Constitution.[75] From the
scanty records, it is possible to discern only that there was serious
difference of opinion in the Senate, and that the measure finally adopted
was probably a compromise. In the one amendment stated, there is a faint
protest against the harshness of the law.[76]
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