Such are the three chief original compromises of the Constitution and essential conditions of Union.  The case of fugitives from service is not of these.  During the Convention it was not in any way associated with these.  Nor is there any evidence from the records of this body, that the provision on this subject was regarded with any peculiar interest.  As its absence from the Articles of Confederation had not been the occasion of solicitude or de-sire, anterior to the National Convention, so it did not enter into any of the original plans of the Constitution.  It was introduced tardily, at a late period of the Convention, and adopted with very little and most casual discussion.  A few facts show how utterly unfounded are recent assumptions.

The National Convention was convoked to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May, 1787.  Several members appeared at this time, but, a majority of the States not being represented, those present adjourned from day to day until the 25th, when the Convention was organized by the choice of George Washington as President.  On the 28th a few brief rules and orders were adopted.  On the next day, they commenced their great work.

On the same day, Edmund Randolph, of slaveholding Virginia, laid before the Convention a series of fifteen resolutions, containing his plan for the establishment of a New National Government.  Here was no allusion to fugitives slaves.

Also, on the same day, Charles Pinckney, of slaveholding South Carolina, laid before the Convention what was called “A Draft of a Federal Government, to be agreed upon between the Free and Independent States of America,” an elaborate paper, marked by considerable minuteness of detail.  Here are provisions, borrowed from the Articles of Confederation, securing to the citizens of each State equal privileges, in the several States, giving faith to the public records of the States, and ordaining the surrender of fugitives from justice.  But this draft, though from the flaming guardian of the slave interest, contained no allusion to fugitive slaves.

In the course of the Convention other plans were brought forward:  on the 15th of June, aseries of eleven propositions by Mr. Paterson, of New Jersey, “so as to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union”; on the 18th June, eleven propositions by Mr. Hamilton, of New York, “containing his ideas of a suitable plan of Government for the United States” and on the 19th June, Mr. Randolph’s resolutions, originally offered on the 29th May, “as altered, amended, and agreed to in Committee of the Whole House.”  On the 26th July, twenty-three resolutions, already adopted on different days in the Convention, were referred to a “Committee of Detail,” for reduction to the form of a Constitution.  On the 6th August this Committee reported the finished draft of a Constitution.  And yet in all these resolutions, plans, and drafts, seven in number, proceeding from eminent members and from able committees, no allusion is made to fugitive slaves.  For three months the Convention was in session, and not a word uttered on this subject.