Fugitive Slaves

One brancli of tho Missouri Legi.slntiire lias addressed the following memorial to Congress in rclation to the escape of fu-giiive slavcs: - Your memorialists, the General Asseinbly of the State of Missouri, rêspectfully represent tfiat the citizeus oï tlVi'sbtatc are anniially subjected to Heavy losses ofproperty by the escnpe of thcir slaves, ybp pass thruugh Illinois, and linally find' a secure place of rcfuge in Canada. Under tlio cxisti'ng laívs o Canada, and the treaties between Gréa Critain and the United State?, t is impossible to recover a slave who has once escaped to the Canadian sliorc. The slaves that nro recbgnizêd by our constiluliori and laws as individual property, are iïerjuently lo.st, and the unfortunate slaves r,rc decoyed into a cold and bleak región, ütíeíly unsuited to their habiis andconstitutiuns, are rendered more m'serablo and degraded than when tlioy lived ns slaves. In order to Hord a remedy for tliis evi!, wc respc-ctfully request tfiKi mcasures inay be taken to have ncgoeiaiions instituled beiwéép our own National Government and Great Rritain, to provide for some satisfactory mode of preventing the escape of our slaves iato the British possessions. and for their apprehension and redelivery after they have 'croescd the northern lakes. Wc request tliat n firm, earnest and offbrt may be mado by negotiation, to secure the property and just rights of tho slaveholding States, and that the sanie may be cstablished on a firm basis by an honorable treaty.