who again reasons from the
sentiments of the fathers. "At the close of the National Convention,"
says he, "Elbridge Gerry refused to sign the Constitution, because,
among other things, it established 'a tribunal _without juries_, a Star
Chamber as to civil cases.' Many united in his opposition, and, on the
recommendation of the First Congress, this additional safeguard was
adopted as an amendment." Thus, according to Mr. Sumner, Elbridge Gerry
was the father of the clause in the Constitution which guarantees the
right of trial by jury. Yet Elbridge Gerry never dreamed of applying
this clause to the case of fugitive slaves; for, as we have already
seen, he voted for the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, in which such
application of it is denied. Nor did any other member of that Congress
propose the right of trial by jury in such cases.

No doubt there would have been opposition to the act of 1793 if any
member of Congress had supposed, for a moment, that it denied the right
of trial by jury to the fugitive slave. It does no such thing. It leaves
that right unimpaired; and if any slave in the Union, whether fugitive
or otherwise, desire such trial, it is secured to him by the
Constitution and laws of the country. But he cannot have such trial
where or in what State he chooses. If he lives in Richmond, he may have
a trial by jury there; but he cannot escape to Boston, and there demand
this as a right. The fugitive from labor, like the fugitive from
justice, has a right to a trial by jury, but neither can claim to have
this trial in any part of the world he pleases. The latter must be tried
in "the vicinage" where the offense is alleged to have been committed,
because there the witnesses are to be found. He has no right to flee
from these and require them to follow him with their testimony. As he
has a constitutional right to be tried in the vicinage of the alleged
offense, so has the commonwealth a right to insist on his trial there.
In like manner, and for a similar reason, if the colored man wishes to
assert his freedom under the law, he may appeal to a jury of the
country; but this must be done in the State under whose laws he is
claimed as a slave and where the witnesses reside. He cannot fly to a
distant State, and there demand a kind of trial which neither the
Constitution, nor the laws, nor public expediency, secures to him. If he
assert this right at all, he must assert it in conformity with the
_undoubted right of the