" Let them only say this, and _do_ nothing, and
the whole fabric of slavery would instantly crumble and fall. The
edifice is rotten, and is propped up only by the buttresses of the
North. The South retains the slave, because the free States furnish the
sentinels.
Again, Art. IV., sect. 2, says, "No person held to service or labour in
one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in
consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such
service or labour; but shall be _delivered up_ on claim of the party to
whom such service or labour may be due."
This clause pledges the North, not only to refuse an asylum to the
fugitive slave, but also to deliver him up to his unrighteous and cruel
task-master,--a deed which the law of God expressly condemns, and which
the best impulses of our nature repudiate with loathing and contempt.
The article before us constitutes all the free States of the Union a
slave-hunting ground for the Southern aristocracy. Talk of the game
laws of England! Here is a game law infinitely more unjust and
oppressive. A free country this! A noble government! Hail Columbia!
See how this slave-holding aristocracy have always managed to oppress
the North, and to secure to themselves the lion's share of the good
things of government.
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