[11] Republican, elected for term of one year, beginning May 29, 1883.
FIRST FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.
Cedar Falls.
Tell us who brought forward the first fugitive slave law.
P. G. Klock.
Answer.—In the constitutional convention of 1787 Mr. Pierce Butler, a delegate from South Carolina, moved the adoption of clause 3, section 2, article 4 of the Constitution, which reads: “No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” The first law to give effect to this constitutional provision was prepared by a committee of the Senate appointed in November, 1792. This committee was composed of Mr. Johnston, of North Carolina; Mr. Cabot, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Read, of Delaware. In December Mr. Johnston reported a bill which was not entirely satisfactory. Mr. Taylor, of Virginia, and Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, were added to the committee. On Jan. 3, 1793, Mr. Johnston reported a bill, which, after several days’ consideration, was passed without a single dissenting voice. On the 4th of February following, this bill passed the House by a vote of 48 to 7. We cannot give the text of it, but it gave slave-masters and their agents summary power to seize, hold, and return fugitives from slavery to their former bondage, whatever laws the States in which they were found might pass to the contrary, the matter being one under jurisdiction of the United States courts.
THE WORLD’S PRINCIPAL TIN MINES.
Altona, Ill.