WAYNE, Justice.
I concur altogether in the opinion of the court, as it has been given by my brother STORY. In that opinion it is decided:--
1. That the provision in the second section of the fourth article of the constitution, relative to feguitives from service or labor, confers upon the owner of a fugitive slave the right, by himself or his agent, to seize and arrest, without committing a breach of the peace, his fugitive slave, as property, in any state of the Union; and that no state law is constitutional which interferes with such right.
2. That the provision authorizes and requires legislation by congress to guard that right of seizure and arrest against all state and other interference, to make the delivery of fugitive slaves more effectual when the claims of owners are contested; and to insure to owners the unmolested transportation of fugitive slaves, through any of the states, to the state from which they may have fled.
3. That the legislation by congress upon the provision, as the supreme law of the land, excludes all state legislation upon the same subject; and that no state can pass any law or regulation, or interpose such as may have been a law or regulation when the constitution of the United States was ratified, to superadd to, control, qualify or impede a remedy, enacted by congress, for the delivery of fugitive slaves to the parties to whom their service or labor is due.
4. That the power of legislation by congress upon the provision is exclusive; and that no state can pass any law as a remedy upon the subject, whether congress had or had not legislated upon it.
5. That the act of congress of the 12th February 1793, entitled 'an act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters,' gives a remedy; but does not exhaust the remedies which congress may legislate upon the subject.
6. That the points so decided are not intended to interfere in any way, nor do they interfere in any manner, with the police power in the states, to arrest and imprison fugitive slaves, to guard against their misconduct and depredations; or to punish them for offences and crimes committed in the states to which they may have fled.
7. These points being so decided and applied to the case before the court it follows, that the law of Pennsylvania, upon which the plaintiff is indicted, is unconstitutional; and that the judgment given by the supreme court of Pennsylvania against the plaintiff must be reversed.
All of the judges of the court concur in the opinion, that the law under which the plaintiff in error was indicted, is unconstitutional. All of them concur also in the declaration, that the provision in the constitution was a compromise between the slave-holding, and the non-slave-holding states, to secure to the former fugitive slaves as property. All of the members of the court, too, except my brother BALDWIN, concur in the opinion, that legislation by congress, to carry the provision into execution, is constitutional; and he contends, that the provision gives to the owners of fugitive slaves all the rights of seizure and removal which legislation could give; but he concurs in the opinion, if legislation by congress be necessary, that the right to legislate is exclusively in congress. There is no difference, then, among the judges, as to the reversal of the judgment; none in respect to the origin and object of the provision, or the obligation to exercise it. But differences do exist as to the mode of execution. Three of the judges have expressed the opinion, that the states may legislate upon the provision, in aid of the object it was intended to secure; and that such legislation is constitutional, when it does not conflict with the remedy which congress may enact.
I believe, that the power to legislate upon the provision is exclusively in congress. The provision is, that '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 is due.' The clause contains four substantive declarations; or two conditions, a prohibition, and a direction. First, the fugitive must owe service or labor under the law of the state from which he had escaped; second, he must have fled from it. The prohibition is, that he cannot be discharged from service, in consequence of any law or regulation of the state in which he may be; and the direction is affirmative, of an obligation upon the states, and declarative of a right in the party to whom the service or labor of a fugitive is due.