The question was considered in the convention which framed the
constitution, and after discussion the proposition to give power to
the general government to enforce upon a resistant State obedience to
the law was rejected. It was upon this ground of exemption from
compulsion that the compact of the States became a sacred obligation;
and it was upon this honorable fulfilment principally that our fathers
depended for the security of the rights which the Constitution was
designed to secure. [Applause.]

The fugitive slave compact in the Constitution of the United States
implied that the States should fulfil it voluntarily. They expected
the States to legislate so as to secure the rendition of fugitives.

And in 1788 it was a matter of complaint that the colony of Florida
did not restore fugitive negroes from the United States who escaped
into that colony, and a committee, composed of Hamilton, of New York,
Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, and Madison, of Virginia, reported
resolutions in the Congress instructing the committee for foreign
affairs to address the _charge d'affaires_ at Madrid to apply to his
majesty of Spain to issue orders to his governor to compel them to
secure the rendition of fugitive negroes to any one who should go
there entitled to receive them. This was the sentiment of the
committee, and they added, by way of example, as the States would
return any slaves from Florida who might escape into their limits.

When the Constitutional requirement was imposed, who could have
doubted that every State faithful to its obligations would comply
without raising questions as to whether the institution should or
should not exist in another community over which they had no control.
Congress was at last forced by the failures of the States, to