"Art. IV. Sect. 2.... 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."

The debate on the above was exciting and interesting, as the subject
of slavery was examined in all its bearings. Finally the Constitution
was submitted to Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, to receive the
finishing touches of his facile pen. On the 8th of August, 1787,
during the debate, he delivered the following speech:--

"He never would concur in upholding domestic slavery. It was
a nefarious institution. It was the curse of Heaven on the
States where it prevailed. Compare the free regions of the
Middle States, where a rich and noble cultivation marks the
prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and
poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia,
Maryland, and the other States having slaves. Travel through
the whole continent, and you behold the prospect continually
varying with the appearance and disappearance of slavery.
The moment you leave the Eastern States, and enter New York,
the effects of the institution become visible. Passing
through the Jerseys, and entering Pennsylvania, every
criterion of superior improvement witnesses the change.
Proceed southwardly, and every step you take through the
great regions of slaves presents a desert, increasing with
the increasing proportion of these wretched beings. Upon
what principle it is that the slaves shall be computed in
the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens,
and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other
property included? The houses in this city (Philadelphia)
are worth more than all the wretched slaves who cover the
rice-swamps of South Carolina. The admission of slaves into
the representation, when fairly explained, comes to
this,--that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina,
who goes to the coast of Africa, and, in defiance of the
most sacred laws of humanity, tears away his
fellow-creatures from their dearest connections, and damns
them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more votes in a
government instituted for