the party to whom such service or labor is due."

That is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a
monster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article,
interpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these
three or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure
justice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the
destroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men,
to carry on their hellish work--how it can do this thing, I cannot
see. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a
certain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do
you find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to
hunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his
cruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to
compel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The
General Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their
separate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly
provides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service,
or labor due from the party claimed. If Jim Gray owed service, or
labor, or money, to Phillips, I am the last man in the world to raise
my voice or hand to prevent Phillips, or any man, from obtaining his
dues. What I would grant to the devil himself, I would not withhold
even from the slaveholder--his due. Jim Gray claims that he does not
owe Phillips a day's work or a dollar of money. Phillips claims that
he owes him every day's work that has been deposited in his bones and
sinews; yea, the toil of his body and mind both, till death shall end
the period of stipulated toil. Here is a question for legal
examination and judicial discussion. Does the man Gray owe this man
Phillips any thing? The Constitution is very clear and very plain in
pointing out the way this question is to be settled.