Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Calhoun relentlessly demanded the full measure of justice for the South, equal rights in the territories bought by common blood, the return of runaway slaves as required by the Constitution, the suppression of the abolitionists, and the restoration of the balance of power between the North and the South.

Webster, in his notable 7th of March speech, condemned the Wilmot proviso, advocated a strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, denounced the abolitionists, and made a final plea for the Constitution, Union, and Liberty.

This was the address which called forth from Whittier the poem, Ichabod, deploring the fall of the Mighty One whom he thought lost to all sense of faith and honor.

THE TERMS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 When the debates were closed, the results were totaled in a series of compromise measures, all of which were signed in September 1850 by the new president, Millard Fillmore, who had taken office two months before on the death of Zachary Taylor.

California was admitted as a free state under a constitution in which the people of the territory had themselves prohibited slavery.

The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, but slavery itself existed as before at the capital of the nation.

This concession to anti-slavery sentiment was more than offset by a new fugitive slave law, drastic in spirit and in letter.

It placed the enforcement of its terms in the hands of federal officers appointed from Washington, and so removed it from the control of authorities locally elected.

This is part of the reason why they hate trial by jury.

If you look at the Fugitive Slave Act and look back at what happened 150 more years ago, you saw that most people said, I'm not going to convict somebody for running away from a tyrannical slave owner.

And as a result, they couldn't get convictions under the Fugitive Slave Act.

And it was trial by jury that ended that.

Some of the other decisions, like the bad case of Dred Scott and so forth, well, those were just attempts to cover up what was already going on in the communities out there in the nation where people simply said, I'm not going to convict under a bad law.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, and, and a few, I think, really great examples of this, um, you know, the, the Fugitive Slave Act was a period...

You know, there was agitation for abolition in the early, mid 1800s, and the Fugitive Slave Act, which as many people know, essentially said, like, you know, you can go and catch, uh, the escaped, uh, slave in the North, and as it turned out, they just started grabbing a- any, any Black person.

Um, you know, that was 1850, and that kind of really set in a lot of pessimism that we'd be a- able to end slavery or really make meaningful progress on racial justice.

Um, so, you know, you had this resurgence of nationalism during that era.

You could argue the Civil War begins on the ground in places like Kansas.

Lastly, the Fugitive Act is strengthened under his thing, which has so much to do with that.

I mean, the Fugitive Slave Act is really important, and it's forgotten by a lot of people, but this was the legislation that gave Southerners the right to use federal militia forces as well as state forces to go into northern areas and recapture escaped slaves.

This was seen as an affront to the sovereignty of of northern states.

Calhoun relentlessly demanded the full measure of justice for the South, equal rights in the territories bought by common blood, the return of runaway slaves as required by the Constitution, the suppression of the abolitionists, and the restoration of the balance of power between the North and the South.

Webster, in his notable 7th of March speech, condemned the Wilmot Proviso, advocated a strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, denounced the abolitionists, and made a final plea for the Constitution, Union, and Liberty.

This was the address which called forth from Whittier the poem, Ichabod, deploring the fall of the Mighty One whom he thought lost to all sense of faith and honor.

THE TERMS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 When the debates were closed, the results were totaled in a series of compromise measures, all of which were signed in September 1850 by the new president, Millard Fillmore, who had taken office two months before on the death of Zachary Taylor.

California was admitted as a free state under a constitution in which the people of the territory had themselves prohibited slavery.

The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, but slavery itself existed as before at the capital of the nation.

This concession to anti-slavery sentiment was more than offset by a new fugitive slave law, drastic in spirit and in letter.

It placed the enforcement of its terms in the hands of federal officers appointed from Washington, and so removed it from the control of authorities locally elected it provided that masters or their agents on filing claims in due form might summarily remove their escaped slaves without affording their alleged fugitives the right of trial by jury the right to witness the right to offer any testimony in evidence Finally, to put teeth into the act, heavy penalties were prescribed for all who obstructed or assisted in obstructing the enforcement of the law.