Mr. Wilson: This would oblige the executive of the State to do it at the public expense.
Mr. Sherman saw no more propriety in the public seizing and surrendering a slave or servant than a horse.
Mr. Butler withdrew his proposition, in order that some particular provision might be made, apart from this article.
Article 15, as amended, was then agreed to, nem. con.—Mad. Papers, pp. 1447-8.
The next day, Aug. 29, Mr. Butler, to accomplish his purpose, moved to insert, after Art. 15,—
"If any person, bound to service or labor in any of the United States, shall escape into another State, he or she shall not be discharged from such service or labor, in consequence of any regulations subsisting in the State to which they escape, but shall be delivered up to the person justly claiming their service or labor."
Which was agreed to, nem. con.
After the phraseology had been somewhat altered, on Saturday, Sept. 15, 1787, in this clause (then Const. Art. 4, sec. 2) the term "legally" was struck out, and the words "under the laws thereof" inserted after the word "State," in compliance with the wish of some one who thought the term legal equivocal, and favoring the idea that slavery was legal in a moral view.
In the Virginia Convention, Mr. Madison said:—
"Another clause secures us that property which we now possess. At present, if any slave elopes to any of 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, 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.' This clause was expressly inserted to enable 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 interpose with respect to the property in slaves now held by the States."