s Hamlet, for three years a resident of New York
City, a husband and a father and a member of the Methodist Church, was
seized eight days after the law went into effect by order of the agent
of Mary Brown of Baltimore, cut off from all communication with his
friends, hurried before a commissioner, and on ex parte testimony was
delivered into the hands of the agent, by whom he was handcuffed and
secretly conveyed to Baltimore. Mr. Rhodes accounts for the enactment
in the following words: "If we look below the surface we shall find a
strong impelling motive of the Southern clamor for this harsh enactment
other than the natural desire to recover lost property. Early in the
session it took air that a part of the game of the disunionists was to
press a stringent fugitive slave law, for which no Northern man could
vote; and when it was defeated, the North would be charged with refusal
to carry out a stipulation of the Constitution.... The admission of
California was a bitter pill for the Southern ultras, but they were
forced to take it. The Fugitive Slave Law was a taunt and a reproach to
that part of the North where the anti-slavery sentiment ruled supremely,
and was deemed a partial compensation." Clay expressed surprise that
States from which few slaves escaped demanded a more stringent law than
Kentucky, from which many escaped.

Whatever may have been the motives leading to the enactment, its
immediate effect was the elimination of one of the great national
parties, thus paving the way for the formation of parties along
sectional lines. Two years after the passage of the compromise acts the
Democratic national convention assembled to nominate a candidate for
the Presidency. The platform adopted by the party promised a faithful
execution of the acts known as the compromise measures and added "the
act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor included; which act,
being designed to carry out an express provision of the Constitution,
cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed nor so changed as to destroy
or impair its efficiency." When this was read, the convention broke out
in uproarious applause. Then there was a demand that it should be read
again. Again there was loud applause.

Why was there this demand that a law which every one knew had proved a
complete failure should be made a permanent part of the Constitution?
And why the ungovernable hilarity over the demand that its "efficiency"
should never be impaired? S