tman case and many others, however, had
served as an index of northern sentiment in the matter, for the
troubles of the Kentucky slaveholder were just beginning. A year
later, in 1848, a requisition was issued on the Governor of Ohio for
the return of fifteen persons charged with aiding in the escape of
slaves. Imagine the feeling in Kentucky when Governor Bell of Ohio
positively refused to give these persons up, stating that the laws of
Ohio did not recognize man as property. It was apparently a political
move on his part, for there was no question of the property conception
of slavery involved whatsoever. He acted in direct opposition to the
laws of his State enacted in 1839 and to the federal fugitive slave
law of 1793.

After two decades of struggle the abolitionists had come into their
own and it was almost impossible to recover slaves who had run away in
spite of the legal machinery that had been set up. Furthermore, the
more extreme abolitionists had disregarded all law, orders and rights
of private property and had even gone so far as to proclaim that there
was a "higher law than the Constitution." Against such a powerful foe
the forces of all parties in Kentucky united in a firm stand,
demanding more stringent measures. The Supreme Court had decided that
the existing law was sufficient to recover fugitives and to demand and
secure damages for the interference with that right. With the coming
of new conditions, however, it was realized on all sides that new and
most extreme measures were necessary.

The existing circumstances are well shown by the attitude of Henry
Clay, senator from Kentucky as well as author of the Compromise of
1850. Noted for his leanings towards the North, throughout his public
career of more than half a century, and as far back as 1798 the
advocate of gradual emancipation in Kentucky, he felt called upon in
this crisis to express the irritation of his own people:

I have very little doubt, indeed, that the extent of loss to the
state of Kentucky, in consequence of the escape of her slaves is
greater, at least in proportion to the total number of slaves
that are held within that commonwealth, even than in Virginia. I
know full well, and so does the honorable senator from Ohio know,
that it is at the utmost hazard and insecurity to life itself,
that a Kentuckian can cross the river and go into the interior to
take back his fugitive slave from whence