By this stipulation, the Northern States are made the hunting ground of slave-catchers, who may pursue their victims with blood-hounds, and capture them with impunity wherever they can lay their robber hands upon them. At least twelve or fifteen thousand runaway slaves are now in Canada, exiled from their native land, because they could not find, throughout its vast extent, a single road on which they could dwell in safety, _in consequence of this provision of the Constitution_? How is it possible, then, for the advocates of liberty to support a government which gives over to destruction one-sixth part of the whole population? It is denied by some at the present day, that the clause which has been cited, was intended to apply to runaway slaves. This indicates either ignorance, or folly, or something worse. JAMES MADISON as one of the framers of the Constitution, is of some authority on this point. Alluding to that instrument, in the Virginia convention, he said:-- "Another clause _secures us that property which we now possess_. At present, if any slave elopes to those States where slaves are free, _he becomes emancipated by their laws_; for the laws of the States are _uncharitable_(!) to one another in this respect; but in this constitution, 'No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered upon claim of the party to whom such service or labor away be due. THIS CLAUSE WAS EXPRESSLY INSERTED TO ENABLE THE OWNERS OF SLAVES TO RECLAIM THEM. _This is a better security than any that now exists_. No power is given to the general government to interfere with respect to the property in slaves now held by the States." In the same convention, alluding to the same clause, GOV. RANDOLPH said:-- "Every one knows that slaves are held to service or labor. And, when authority is given to owners of slaves to _vindicate their property_, can it be supposed they can be deprived of it? If a citizen of this State, in consequence of this clause, can take his runaway slave in Maryland, can it be seriously thought that, after taking him and bringing him home, he could be made free?"