whether it is the duty of a nation, in the absence of a positive engagement, to surrender fugitives from justice who have sought shelter within its limits. It might, perhaps, be clearly implied that, in such a union of states as ours, every state is bound to deny an asylum to the criminals of the other states. But the Constitution has not left so important a question to inference or implication; it has enjoined it as a mutual obligation upon the states to deliver up, on demand, fugitives from justice. And Congress by law have prescribed the mode of proceeding when a fugitive from justice is demanded.

388. The words "treason, felony, or other crime' include every offence forbidden and made punishable by the laws of the state where the offence is committed. And it must appear from the papers that the alleged fugitive committed the crime with which he is charged in the state from which the requisition proceeds. The obligation to surrender fugitives from justice rests upon the mutual good will and good faith of the states; and, hence, if the governor of a state should refuse on proper demand to deliver up such fugitive, the Federal courts have no power to compel him to perform the duty.

Fugitives from Labor.

389. 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.

390. Before the adoption of the Constitution, a slave escaping from one state into another could only be recovered as a matter of comity and favor, not as a matter of right. Because, by the law of nations, no independent state is bound to recognise the state of slavery as to foreign slaves found within its territory, when such recognition is in opposition to its own policy and institutions.

391. Hence the constitutional provision which makes that a matter of legal right which before could be claimed only as a matter of favor. Under the Constitution, therefore, a fugitive from service or labor cannot, in consequence of any law or regulation of the state into which he may have fled, be discharged from such service or labor, but must be delivered up on claim of the party entitled to his service or labor.

392. There must, however, be an escape. The Constitution does not extend to the case of a slave voluntarily carried by his master into a state in which slavery is not tolerated, or who goes there with his master's permission, and then escapes or refuses to return. Whether such a person shall be

delivered up, or be deemed free, depends wholly upon the local law and regulations, and not at all upon the Constitution or laws of the United States. Happily all questions growing out of the state of slavery are now at an end by its entire abolition.

19*

NEW STATES AND TERRITORIES.

Admission of New States into the Union.

393. New states may be admitted by Congress into the Union; but no new state can be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.

394. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the United States possessed a vast extent of vacant territory which had been acquired, along with our independence, from England. We have since obtained immense acquisitions of territory from France, Spain, Mexico, and Russia; from France- the territory known as Louisiana; from Spain - Florida; and from Mexico-California, New Mexico, Utah, and extensive districts of country lying along the southern boundary of the United States; and from RussiaAlaska.

395. Out of these various acquisitions twenty-three

new states have already been admitted into the Union, originally composed of thirteen states; and territory yet remains sufficient when peopled to form perhaps fifteen or twenty more.

396. The usual mode of proceeding in the creation and admission of new states is as follows: When a territory has acquired such a population as fits it to become a state, the territorial legislature, with the permission of Congress, pass a law authorizing a convention to be chosen for the purpose of forming a constitution and state government. The constitution when formed is submitted to Congress by the convention, with the request that the territory may be admitted into the Union as a state. If the constitution is found to be republican, and is approved, Congress admit it on an equal footing with the original

states.

397. To prevent Congress from arbitrarily creating new states by the division of the larger states, or the junction of the smaller ones, or of parts of states, it is provided that such division or junction shall not take place without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned.

Territories.

398. Congress have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the terri