stitution  by  so  much  as  admitting  its  name. Mr. Madison
"  thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea
that  there  could  be  property  in  men,"  and  that  the  liberty
to  import  slaves  for  twenty  years  would  be  "  dishonorable
to  the  American  character."  1

The  third  and  last  of  these  oblique  phrases  was  one,  the
forced  construction  of  which,  in  later  years,  was  the  begin-
ning of  that  sectional  strife  that  could  only  be  quenched
in  war. It  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  deliv-
ered up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or
labor  may  be  due  "  (Art. IV. 2,  3). Every  word  of  this
clause  might  stand  for  runaway  apprentices,  and  every
verbal  obligation  be  fulfilled  by  returning  such  fugitives,
under  the  system  of  apprenticeship  as  it  then  existed  in
many  States. Xo  doubt  runaway  slaves  were  in  the  con-
templation of  this  clause  :  but  the  framers  of  the  Consti-
tution regarded  slavery  as  purely  a  local  institution,  exist-
ing only  by  force  of  the  customs  and  laws  of  particular
States,  and  not  proper  to  be  incorporated  with  the  national
Constitution  ;  and,  moreover,  looking  forward  to  its  speedy
demise,  while  providing  for  the  mutual  recognition  among
the  States  of  their  several  local  laws,  so  far  as  to  avoid
legal  and  judicial  collisions,  they  refused  to  specify  slavery
as  a  thing  to  be  guarded  by  the  national  code. I  say,  re-
fused to  do  this  ;  for,  when  the  matter  was  under  discus-
sion in  the  convention,  Gen. Pinckney  expressed  the  wish
"  that  some  provision  should  be  included  in  favor  of  prop-
erty in  slaves ; "  and  Mr. Butler  moved  to  require  "  fugi-
tive slaves  and  servants  to  be  delivered  up  like  crimi-
nals." 2  But  the  convention,  set  in  its  purpose  not  to
affix  the  seal  of  slavery  to  an  instrument  of  liberty,  voted
down  every  such  proposal;  and,  instead  of  ordering  that
fugitive  slaves  should  be  delivered  up  by  force  of  United-
States  laws  and  officers,  simply  provided  against  a  collision
between  State  authorities  through  the  opposition  of  local
laws  and  usages. Mr. 