from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
FUGITIVE SLAVE. One who has escaped from the service of his master.
2. The Constitution of the United States, art. 4, s. 2, 3, directs that
"no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any laws 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 clue." In
practice summary ministerial proceedings are adopted, and not the ordinary
course of judicial investigations, to ascertain whether the claim of
ownership be established beyond all legal controversy. Vide, generally, 3
Story, Com. on Const. Sec. 1804-1806; Serg. on Const. ch. 31, p. 387; 9
John. R. 62; 5 Serg. & Rawle, 62; 2 Pick. R. 11; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 306; 3 Id.
4; 1 Wash. C. C. R. 500; 14 Wend. R. 507, 539; 18 Wend. R. 678; 22 Amer.
Jur. 344.