Record Data
Transcription
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.
The Macoupin Free Democrat is somewhat distressed because this journal is opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law. We are sorry to disagree with our respectable Republican contemporary; but in this case, we are wide apart, and we know not how the chasm between us will be bridged over. But let the Democrat understand that while we oppose and spit upon that atrocious enactment, and would if we could, blot it out of the memory of man, we are none the less opposed to a denial of the rights of the South. The Constitution commands the rendition of fugitives from labor and justice; and we raise no hand to prevent the enforcement of that command. We ask only that in the execution of a constitutional duty for the benefit of slave-holders, the constitution itself shall be respected – that it shall not be wantonly violated for the degradation of free men. Yet a while then, we choose to protest against the action of the unconstitutional courts established by the law of 1850, and against that stretch of power which compulsorily puts every man in the North on level in the moral scale, with a nigger-catcher’s blood hounds. Does the Democrat understand?
