Author: John Entick
Published: 1780
Original from: University of Lausanne
Digitized: Feb 27, 2008
From: http://books.google.com/books?id=xZUPAAAAQAAJ
From: http://books.google.com/books?id=xZUPAAAAQAAJ
Collection: The Liberator
Publication: THE LIBERATOR
Date: January 23, 1836
Title: Extracts from Gov. Gayle's message, accompanying the requisition.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Extracts from Gov. Gayle's message, accompanying the requisition.
"...It has been improperly admitted by writers in the South, who have engaged in discussing this subject, that the constitution and laws of the United States, in regard to fugitives from justice, do not authorize a demand for the delivery of these incendiaries, to the States whose laws they have violated. This opinion has been embraced under the erroneous impression, that the rules of strict construction which with great propriety, apply to certain parts of the constitution, must necessarily, apply to all others. They do not appear to have observed the obvious distinction between those provisions of this instrument which transfer powers to the general government, and those which confirm and enlarge the rights of the States, as they existed previous to its formation. When the States achieved their independence, they had no rules to regulate their intercourse with each other, but such as could be derived from the law of nations. This law as laid down by Vattel in relation to offenders is, that a sovereign 'ought not to suffer his subjects to molest the subjects of others, or to do them an injury; much less should he permit them audaciously to offend foreign powers..."