States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses
concurring, that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures
of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of said
Constitution, namely:
"'ARTICLE XIII.
"'SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
"'SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.'"
_And whereas_, It appears from official documents on file in this
Department, that the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the Legislatures of the
States of Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan, Maryland, New York, West
Virginia, Maine, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio,
Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, South Carolina,
Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, in all 27 States.
_And whereas_, The whole number of States in the United States is 36.
_And whereas_, The before specially named States, whose Legislatures
have ratified the said proposed Amendment, constitute three-fourths of
the whole number of States in the United States:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, William H. Seward, Secretary of
State of the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the second
section of the act of Congress, approved the 20th of April, 1818,
entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the
United States, and for other purposes," do hereby certify that the
Amendment aforesaid has become valid to all intents and purposes as a
part of the Constitution of the United States.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the Department of State to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day of December, in the year
of our Lord 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the 90th.
WM. H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.
ADOPTED BY CONGRESS JUNE 13TH, 1866, AND WHEN RATIFIED BY
TWO-THIRDS OF THE LEGISLATURES BECOMES A PART OF THE CONSTITUTION.
The joint resolution as passed is as follows:
_Resolved_, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses
concurring), That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures
of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:
ARTICLE--.
Sec. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the
States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty
or happiness, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of
persons, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to vote at
any election for the choice of electors for President and
Vice-President, representatives in Congress, executive and judicial
officers, or members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the
male inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in
rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall
bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such State.
Sec. 3. That no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or
elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or
military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of
the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution
of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But
Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such
disabilities.
Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be
questioned. But neither the United States or any State shall assume or
pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion
against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of
any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held
illegal and void.
Sec. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
_Passed by Congress previous to the Adoption of the New
Constitution, and subsequently adopted by Congress, Aug. 7, 1789,
entitled, "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the
United States north-west of the River Ohio."_
(All the Articles of this ordinance, previous to Article VI.,
relate to the organization and powers of the government of the
territory, the following section being all that relates to
slavery.)
ARTICLE VI.
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said
territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, that any person
escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed
in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully
reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or
service, as aforesaid.
Done by the United States in Congress assembled the thirteenth day
of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and of the sovereignty and
Independence the twelfth.
WILLIAM GRAYSON, _Chairman_.
CHARLES THOMPSON, _Secretary_.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793.
ADOPTED FEBRUARY 12, 1793.
_An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping
from the Service of their Masters._
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That whenever the executive
authority of any State in the Union, or of either of the territories
north-west or south of the River Ohio, shall demand any person, as a
fugitive from justice, of the executive authority of any such State or
Territory to which such person shall have fled, and shall, moreover,
produce the copy of an indictment found, or an affidavit made before a
magistrate of any State or Territory as aforesaid, charging the person
so demanded with having committed treason, felony, or other crime,
certified as authentic by the governor or chief magistrate of the State
or Territory from whence the person so charged fled, it shall be the
duty of the executive authority of the State or Territory to which such
person shall have fled, to cause him or her to be arrested and secured,
and notice of the arrest to be given to the executive authority making
such demand, or to the agent of such authority appointed to receive the
fugitive, and to cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent when
he shall appear. But if no such agent shall appear within six months
from the time of the arrest, the prisoner may be discharged. And all
costs or expenses incurred in the apprehending, securing, and
transmitting such fugitive to the State or Territory making such demand,
shall be paid by such State or Territory.
_And be it further enacted_, That any agent appointed as aforesaid, who
shall receive the fugitive into his custody, shall be empowered to
transport him or her to the State or Territory from which he or she
shall have fled. And if any person or persons shall by force set at
liberty or rescue the fugitive from such agent while transporting as
aforesaid, the person or persons so offending shall, on conviction, be
fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned not
exceeding one year.
_And be it also enacted_, That when a person held to labor in any of
the United States, or in either of the Territories on the north-west or
south of the River Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into any
other of the said States or Territory, the person to whom such labor or
service may be due, his agent or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize
or arrest such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any
judge of the Circuit or District Courts of the United States, residing
or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a county, city,
or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and
upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by
oral testimony or affidavit taken before, and certified by, a magistrate
of any such State or Territory, that the person so seized or arrested
doth, under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she
fled, owe services or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall
be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to
such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant
for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Territory from
which he or she fled.
_And he it further enacted_, That any person who shall knowingly and
willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so
seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such
fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested
pursuant to the authority herein given or declared, or shall harbor or
conceal such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from
labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and
pay the sum of five hundred dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by
and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any court
proper to try the same; saving, moreover, to the person claiming such
labor or service, his right of action for or on account of the said
injuries, or either of them.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850.
SIGNED SEPTEMBER 18, 1850.
_An Act to amend, and supplementary to the Act entitled "An Act
respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the
Service of their Masters," approved February twelfth, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-three._
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That the persons who have
been, or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in virtue of any
act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts of the United States, and who, in
consequence of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers
that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United
States, may exercise in respect to offenders for any crime or offence
against the United States, by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the
same under and by virtue of the thirty-third section of the act of the
twenty-fourth of September, seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled
"An Act to establish the judicial courts of the United States," shall
be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and discharge
all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
_And be it further enacted_, That the Superior Court of each organized
Territory of the United States shall have the same power to appoint
commissioners to take acknowledgments of bail and affidavits, and to
take depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now possessed by
the Circuit Court of the United States; and all commissioners who shall
hereafter be appointed for such purposes by the Supreme Court of any
organized Territory of the United States, shall possess all the powers,
and exercise all the duties, conferred by law upon the commissioners
appointed by the Circuit Courts of the United States for similar
purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge all the powers and
duties conferred by this act.
_And be it further enacted_, That the Circuit Courts of the United
States, and the Superior Courts of each organized Territory of the
United States, shall from time to time enlarge the number of
commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim
fugitives from labor, and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed
by this act.
_And be it further enacted_, That the commissioners above named shall
have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges of the Circuit and District
Courts of the United States, in their respective circuits and districts
within the several States, and the judges of the Superior Courts of the
Territories severally and collectively, in term time and vacation; and
shall grant certificates to such claimants upon satisfactory proof being
made, with authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or
labor, under the restrictions herein contained, to the State or
Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.
_And he it further enacted_, That it shall be the duty of all marshals
and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued
under the provisions of this act, when to them directed; and should any
marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant, or other
process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute
the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one
thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on the motion of such
claimant, by the Circuit or District Court for the district of such
marshal; and after arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his
deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody, under the provisions of
this act, should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the
assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on
his official bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant,
for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the
State, Territory, or district whence he escaped; and the better to
enable said commissioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties
faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with the requirements of the
constitution of the United States, and of this act, they are hereby
authorized and empowered, within their counties respectively, to
appoint, in writing under their hands, any one or more suitable persons,
from time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may
be issued by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties;
with authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be appointed by
them, to execute process as aforesaid, to summon and call to their aid
the bystanders, or _posse comitatus_ of the proper county, when
necessary to insure a faithful observance of the clause of the
constitution referred to, in conformity with the provisions of this act;
and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the
prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may
be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose; and said warrants shall
run, and be executed by said officers, any where in the State within
which they are issued.
_And be it further enacted_, That when a person held to service or labor
in any State or Territory of the United States has heretofore or shall
hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States,
the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due, or his,
her, or their agent or attorney, duly authorized by power of attorney,
in writing acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal
officer or court of the State or Territory in which the same may be
executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by
procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, judges, or
commissioners aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district, or county, for
the apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, or by seizing
and arresting such fugitive where the same can be done without process,
and by taking, or causing such person to be taken forthwith before such
court, judge, or commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and
determine the case of such claimant in a summary manner; and upon
satisfactory proof being made, by deposition or affidavit, in writing,
to be taken and certified by such court, judge, or commissioner, or by
other satisfactory testimony, duly taken and certified by some court,
magistrate, justice of the peace, or other legal officer authorized to
administer an oath and take depositions under the laws of the State or
Territory from which such person owing service or labor may have
escaped, with a certificate of such magistracy, or other authority as
aforesaid, with the seal of the proper court or officer thereto
attached, which seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of
the proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the person whose
service or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so
arrested does in fact owe service or labor to the person or persons
claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from which such fugitive
may have escaped as aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make out
and deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a
certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the service or
labor due from such fugitive to the claimant, and of his or her escape
from the State or Territory in which such service or labor was due to
the State or Territory in which he or she was arrested, with authority
to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney, to use such
reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the
circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back
to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as
aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of
such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates in
this and the first (fourth) section mentioned, shall be conclusive of
the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted, to remove
such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, and shall
prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any process issued
by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever.
_And be it further enacted_, That any person who shall knowingly and
willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or
attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them,
from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor, either with or
without process as aforesaid, or shall rescue or attempt to rescue such
fugitive from service or labor from the custody of such claimant, his or
her agent or attorney, or other person or persons lawfully assisting as
aforesaid, when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given and
declared, or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or
labor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such
claimant, his agent or attorney, or other person or persons legally
authorized as aforesaid, or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as
to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or
knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service or
labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a
fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding
six months, by indictment and conviction before the District Court of
the United States for the district in which such offence may have been
committed, or before the proper court of criminal jurisdiction, if
committed within any one of the organized Territories of the United
States, and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to
the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand
dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by
action of debt in any of the district or territorial courts aforesaid,
within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have been committed.
_And be it further enacted_, That the marshals, their deputies, and the
clerks of the said district and territorial courts, shall be paid for
their services the like fees as may be allowed to them for similar
services in other cases; and where such services are rendered
exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the
claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or where such supposed fugitive
may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient proof as
aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in the whole by such claimant,
his agent or attorney; and in all cases where the proceedings are before
a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for
his services in each case, upon the delivery of the said certificate to
the claimant, his or her agent or attorney; or a fee of five dollars in
cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion of such commissioner,
warrant such certificate and delivery, inclusive of all services
incident to such arrest or examination, to be paid in either case by the
claimant, his or her agent or attorney. The person or persons authorized
to execute the process to be issued by such commissioner for the arrest
and detention of fugitives from service or labor as aforesaid, shall
also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each, for each person he or
they may arrest and take before any such commissioner, as aforesaid, at
the instance and request of such claimant, with such other fees as may
be deemed reasonable by such commissioners for such other additional
services as may be necessarily performed by him or them; such as
attending at the examination, keeping the fugitive in custody, and
providing him with food and lodging during his detention and until the
final determination of such commissioner; and, in general, for
performing such other duties as may be required by such claimant, his or
her attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises. Such fees to be
made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers of
the courts of justice within the proper district or county, as near as
may be practicable, and paid by such claimants, their agents or
attorneys, whether such supposed fugitives from service or labor be
ordered to be delivered to such claimants by the final determination of
such commissioner or not.
_And be it further enacted_, That, upon affidavit made by the claimant
of such fugitive, his agent or attorney, after such certificate has been
issued that he has reason to apprehend that such fugitive will be
rescued by force from his or her possession before he can be taken
beyond the limits of the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be
the duty of the officer making the arrest to retain such fugitive in his
custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled, and there
deliver him to said claimant, his agent or attorney. And to this end,
the officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to employ so
many persons as he may deem necessary to overcome such force, and to
retain them in his service so long as circumstances may require. The
said officer and his assistants while so employed to receive the
compensation, and to be allowed the same expenses, as are now allowed by
law for transportation of criminals, to be certified by the judge of the
district within which the arrest is made, and paid out of the Treasury
of the United States.