threaten the stability of its institutions: Therefore,

1. _Resolved_, That the laws now in force for the recovery
of fugitive slaves are in strict pursuance of the plain and
mandatory provisions of the Constitution, and have been
sanctioned as valid and constitutional by the judgment of
the Supreme Court of the United States; that the
slaveholding States are entitled to the faithful observance
and execution of those laws, and that they ought not to be
repealed, or so modified or changed as to impair their
efficiency; and that laws ought to be made for the
punishment of those who attempt, by rescue of the slave or
other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution
of said laws.

2. That all State laws which conflict with the fugitive
slave acts, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or
which in their operation impede, hinder, or delay the free
course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and
void by the plain provisions of the Constitution of the
United States. Yet those State laws, void as they are, have
given color to practices, and led to consequences which have
obstructed the due administration and execution of acts of
Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of
fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the
discord and commotion now prevailing. This Convention,
therefore, in the present perilous juncture, does not deem
it improper, respectfully and earnestly to recommend the
repeal of those laws to the several States which have
enacted them, or such legislative corrections or
explanations of them as may prevent their being used or
perverted to such mischievous purposes.

3. That the act of the 18th of September, 1850, commonly
called the Fugitive Slave Law, ought to be so amended as to
make the fee of the Commissioner, mentioned in the eighth
section of the act, equal in amount, in the cases decided by
him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the
claimant. And to avoid misconstructions, the last clause of
the fifth section, of said act, which authorizes the person
holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive
slave, to summon to his aid the _posse comitatus_, and which
declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to assist
him in its