law of 1850 is decidedly more
favorable to the fugitive than General Washington's law of 1793; and I
will tell you why. In the first place, the present law places the power
in much higher hands; in the hands of independent judges of the Supreme
and Circuit Courts, and District Courts, and of commissioners who are
appointed to office for their legal learning. Every fugitive is brought
before a tribunal of high character, of eminent ability, of respectable
station. In the second place, when a claimant comes from Virginia to New
York, to say that one A or one B has run away, or is a fugitive from
service or labor, he brings with him a record of the court of the county
from which he comes, and that record must be sworn to before a
magistrate, and certified by the county clerk, and bear an official
seal. The affidavit must state that A or B had departed under such and
such circumstances, and had gone to another State; and that record under
seal is, by the Constitution of the United States, entitled to full
credit in every State. Well, the claimant or his agent comes here, and
he presents to you the seal of the court in Virginia, affixed to a
record of his declaration, that A or B had escaped from service. He must
then prove that the fugitive is here. He brings a witness; he is asked
if this is the man, and he proves it; or, in nine cases out of ten, the
fact would be admitted by the fugitive himself.

Such is the present law; and, much opposed and maligned as it is, it is
more favorable to the fugitive slave than the law enacted during
Washington's administration, in 1793, which was sanctioned by the North
as well as by the South. The present violent opposition has sprung up in
modern times. From whom does this clamor come? Why, look at the
proceedings of the antislavery conventions; look at their resolutions.
Do you find among those persons who oppose this Fugitive Slave Law any
admission whatever, that any law ought to be passed to carry into effect
the solemn stipulations of the Constitution? Tell me any such case; tell
me if any resolution was adopted by the convention at Syracuse favorable
to the carrying out of the Constitution. Not one! The fact is,
Gentlemen, they oppose the constitutional provision; they oppose the
whole! Not a man of them admits that there ought to be any law on the
subject. They deny, altogether, that the provisions of the Constitution
ought to be carried into effect. Look at the proceedings of th