jurisdiction in suits between two
States, the demand for a mandamus to compel the Governor of Ohio to
deliver Lago to the Kentucky authorities was heard by that body in a
suit under the title of Kentucky _vs._ Dennison (the Governor of
Ohio). The decision of the court was rendered by Chief Justice Taney
and it contained five important statements: (1) "It was the duty of
the executive authority of Ohio upon the demand made by the Governor
of Kentucky, and the production of the indictment, duly certified to
cause Lago to be delivered up to the agent of the Governor of
Kentucky, who was appointed to demand and receive him." (2) "The duty
of the Governor of Ohio was merely ministerial, and he had no right to
exercise any discretionary power as to the nature or character of the
crime charged in the indictment." (3) "The word 'duty' in the act of
1793 means the moral obligation of the state to perform the compact,
in the Constitution, when Congress had, by that act, regulated the
mode in which the duty should be performed." (4) "But Congress cannot
coerce a state officer, as such, to perform any duty by act of
Congress. The state officer may perform if he thinks proper, and it
may be a moral duty to perform it. But if he refuses, no law of
Congress can compel him." (5) "The Governor of Ohio cannot, through
the judiciary or any other department of the general government, be
compelled to deliver up Lago; and upon that ground only this motion
for a mandamus is overruled."[339]

This decision came as a fitting climax to the legal history of the
fugitive slave problem as it concerned Kentucky. Such an
interpretation placed by the highest judicial authority upon an act of
Congress which had stood throughout the slavery era in Kentucky showed
beyond any doubt whatever that the legal battle over slavery questions
was at an end. If any solution was to be found in the future it would
not be in the legislative halls nor in the court room.

Emancipation was an important question closely connected with that of
the fugitive. This was one of the problems to be discussed in the
Constitutional Convention of 1792. There were some few members who
were in favor of immediate liberation and others inclined towards a
scheme of gradual release of the Negro from bondage. But, as has been
shown in the early part of this chapter, the group in favor of the
existing institution easily dominated the convention and drew up the
famous article IX, which r