ress
hung doubtful, in the summer of 1850, President Taylor died. His
successor, Vice-President Millard Fillmore of New York, was a man of
fair ability and cautious or timid disposition; an opponent of Seward in
the politics of their State. He favored the compromise, and called
Webster to his cabinet. The administration's influence seemed to turn
the scale, and Clay's series of measures were adopted one by one. There
was dissatisfaction at the South and indignation at the North. The
territorial settlement was substantially in the North's favor. But the
exasperating fact, and pregnant with consequences, was the Fugitive
Slave law. Its provisions were intolerable to the popular conscience.
All citizens were liable to be called to aid in the pursuit and arrest
of a fugitive. He was to be tried before a United States commissioner,
whose decision was final. A man accused of a crime punishable by a small
fine or a brief imprisonment was entitled to a verdict from an impartial
jury of twelve; but a man whose freedom for life was at stake was at the
mercy of a single official.

Most of the Northern States sooner or later passed "Personal Liberty
laws," which, without directly assuming to nullify the Federal statute,
aimed to defeat its enforcement. They contained such provisions as the
exemption of State officials and State buildings from service in the
rendition of fugitives, and the right of alleged fugitives to be taken
by _habeas corpus_ before a State tribunal. So against the charge of
inhumanity in the Fugitive Slave law, the South brought the
counter-charge of evasion bordering on defiance of a Federal statute.
Few renditions were attempted. Sometimes they were met by forcible
resistance. An alleged fugitive, Jerry, was rescued by the populace in
Syracuse. A negro, Shadrach, arrested as a fugitive in Boston in 1851,
was set free and carried off by a mob. There was a spasm of excitement
in Congress, but it was brief and resultless. Later, in 1854, when the
anti-slavery tide was swiftly rising, came the rendition of Anthony
Burns, who was taken through the streets of Boston under a strong guard
of Federal troops and State militia, while the popular wrath and grief
at the sight swelled the wave which the repeal of the Missouri
compromise had started on its inevitable way.

CHAPTER XI

A LULL AND A RETROSPECT

After the half-year's debate over the compromise of 1850 came a time of
political quiet. "The tumult an