Chapter CDLXXVIII: Section 4: And be it further enacted, That this act shall (10)

"A public meeting in Faneuil Hall condemned the action of
Webster. Theodore Parker, who was one of the principal
speakers, said: 'I know no deed in American history done by a
son of New England to which I can compare this but the act of
Benedict Arnold. … The only reasonable way in which we can
estimate this speech is as a bid for the presidency.' In the
main, the Northern Whig press condemned the salient points of
the speech. … Whittier, in a song of plaintive vehemence
called 'Ichabod,' mourned for the 'fallen' statesman whose
faith was lost, and whose honor was dead. … This was the
instant outburst of opinion; but friends for Webster and his
cause came with more deliberate reflections. … When the first
excitement had subsided, the friends of Webster bestirred
themselves, and soon testimonials poured in, approving the
position which he had taken. The most significant of them was
the one from eight hundred solid men of Boston, who thanked
him for 'recalling us to our duties under the Constitution,'
and for his 'broad national and patriotic views.' The tone of
many of the Whig papers changed, some to positive support,
others to more qualified censure. The whole political
literature of the time is full of the discussion of this
speech and its relation to the compromise. It is frequently
said that a speech in Congress does not alter opinions; that
the minds of men are determined by set political bias or
sectional considerations. This was certainly not the case in
1850. Webster's influence was of the greatest weight in the
passage of the compromise measures, and he is as closely
associated with them as is their author. Clay's adroit
parliamentary management was necessary to carry them through
the various and tedious steps of legislation. But it was
Webster who raised up for them a powerful and much-needed
support from Northern public sentiment. At the South the
speech was cordially received; the larger portion of the press
commended it with undisguised admiration. … On the 11th of
March, Seward spoke. … When Seward came to the territorial
question, his words created a sensation, 'We hold,' he said,
'no arbitrary authority over anything, whether acquired
lawfully or seized by usurpation. The Constitution regulates
our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain (i. e.
the territories not formed into States) to union, to justice,
to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher
law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over
the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The
territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common
heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the
Universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust
as to secure in the highest attainable degree their
happiness.' This remark about 'a higher law,' while far
inferior in rhetorical force to Webster's 'I would not take
pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of Nature, nor to
re-enact the will of God,' was destined to have transcendent
moral influence. A speech which can be condensed into an
aphorism is sure to shape convictions. These, then, are the
two maxims of this debate; the application of them shows the
essential points of the controversy."

_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850.
volume 1, chapter 2._

In the political controversies which accompanied and followed
the introduction of the Compromise measures, the Whigs who
supported the Compromise were called "Silver-Grays," or
"Snuff-Takers," and those who opposed it were called
"Woolly-Heads," or "Seward-Whigs."

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
Mr. Clay's last compromise.
The Omnibus Bill.
The Fugitive Slave Law as passed.

On the 17th of April, "a select committee of the Senate,
headed by Mr. Clay, reported a bill consisting of 39 sections,
embodying most of the resolutions which had been discussed.
From its all-comprehensive nature it was called the Omnibus
Bill. The points comprehended in the omnibus bill were as
follows:

1st. When new states formed out of Texas present themselves,
it shall be the duty of Congress to admit them;

2d. The immediate admission of California, with the boundaries
which she has proposed;

3d. The establishment of territorial governments for Utah and
New Mexico, without the Wilmot proviso;

4th. The combination of points 2 and 3 in one bill;

5th. The excission from Texas of all New Mexico, rendering
therefor a pecuniary equivalent;

6th. The enactment of a law for the effectual rendition of
fugitive slaves escaping into the free states;

7th. No interference with slavery in the District of Columbia,
but the slave trade therein should be abolished, under heavy
penalties.

This bill was discussed until the last of July, and then
passed by the Senate, but it had been so pruned by successive
amendments that it contained only a provision for the
organization of a territorial government for Utah. In this
condition it was sent to the House. There, as a whole, the
bill was rejected, but its main heads were passed in August as
separate bills, and were designated the compromise measures of
1850, and, in their accepted shape, required:

(1) Utah and New Mexico to be organized into territories,
without reference to slavery;

(2) California to be admitted as a free state;

(3) $10,000,000 to be paid to Texas for her claim to New
Mexico;

(4) fugitive slaves to be returned to their masters; and

(5) the slave trade to be abolished in the District of
Columbia.

The compromises were received by the leaders of the two great
parties as a final settlement of the vexed questions which had
so long troubled Congress and agitated the country, but the
storm was only temporarily allayed. In accordance with these
measures California became a state of the Union September 9,
1850. The most important feature of this bill, in its bearing
upon future struggles and conflicts, was the fugitive slave
law. … In the midst of the discussion of these topics occurred
the death of the President, July 9, 1850, one year and four
months after his inauguration. … Mr. Fillmore was inaugurated
on the 10th of July, 1850. He departed from the policy of his
predecessor, organized a new cabinet, used his influence in
favor of the compromise measures," and gave his signature to
the Fugitive Slave Law.

_W. R. Houghton,
History of American Politics,
chapter 15._

"It was apparent to everyone who knew anything of the
sentiments of the North that this law could not be executed to
any extent. Seward had truly said that if the South wished
their runaway negroes returned they must alleviate, not
increase, the rigors of the law of 1793; and to give the
alleged fugitive a jury trial, as Webster proposed, was the
only possible way to effect the desired purpose. If we look
below the surface we shall find a strong impelling motive of
the Southern clamor for this harsh enactment other than the
natural desire to recover lost property. Early in the session
it took air that a part of the game of the disunionists was to
press a stringent fugitive slave law, for which no Northern
man could vote; and when it was defeated, the North would be
charged with refusing to carry out a stipulation of the
Constitution. Douglas stated in the Senate that while there
was some ground for complaint on the subject of surrender of
fugitives from service, it had been greatly exaggerated. The
excitement and virulence were not along the line bordering on
the free and slave States, but between Vermont and South
Carolina, New Hampshire and Alabama, Connecticut and
Louisiana. Clay gave vent to his astonishment that Arkansas,
Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina, States which very
rarely lost a slave, demanded a stricter law than Kentucky,
which lost many. After the act was passed Senator Butler, of
South Carolina, said: 'I would just as soon have the law of
1793 as the present law, for any purpose, so far as regards
the reclamation of fugitive slaves;' and another Southern
ultra never thought it would be productive of much good to his
section. Six months after the passage of the law, Seward
expresses the matured opinion 'that political ends—merely
political ends—and not real evils, resulting from the escape
of slaves, constituted the prevailing motives to the
enactment.'"

_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850,
chapter 2 (volume 1)._

"The fugitive-slave law was to make the citizens of the Free
States do for the slave-holders what not a few of the
slave-holders were too proud to do for themselves. Such a law
could not but fail. But then it would increase the
exasperation of the slave-holders by its failure, while
exasperating the people of the Free States by the attempts at
enforcement. Thus the compromise of 1850, instead of securing
peace and harmony, contained in the most important of its
provisions the seeds of new and greater conflicts. One effect
it produced which Calhoun had clearly predicted when he warned
the slave-holding states against compromises as an invention
of the enemy: it adjourned the decisive conflict until the
superiority of the North over the South in population and
material resources was overwhelming."

_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
chapter 26 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 3, chapters 15-16._

_H. Clay,
Life, Correspondence, and Speeches; edited by Colton,
volume 6._

_W. H. Seward,
Works,
volume 1, pages 51-131.
and volume 4._

_J. S. Pike,
First Blows of the Civil War,
pages 1-98._

_H.Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 2, chapters 18-28._

_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850,
chapter. 2 (volume 1)._

See, also, HIGHER LAW DOCTRINE.

The following is the complete text of the Fugitive Slave Law:
"An act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled 'An
Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping
from the Service of their Masters,' approved February twelfth,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
persons who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed
commissioners, in virtue of any act of Congress, by the
Circuit Courts of the United States, and who, in consequence
of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers
that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of
the United States, may exercise in respect to offenders for
any crime or offence against the United States, by arresting,
imprisoning, or bailing the same under and by virtue of the
thirty-third section of the act of the twenty-fourth of
September seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled 'An Act
to establish the judicial courts of the United States,' shall
be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and
discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.

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SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the Superior Court
of each organized Territory of the United States shall have
the same power to appoint commissioners to take
acknowledgments of bail and affidavits, and to take
depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now
possessed by the Circuit Court of the United States; and all
commissioners who shall hereafter be appointed for such
purposes by the Superior Court of any organized Territory of
the United States, shall possess all the powers, and exercise
all the duties, conferred by law upon the commissioners
appointed by the Circuit Courts of the United States for
similar purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge
all the powers and duties conferred by this act.

SECTION 3. And be it further enacted, That the Circuit Courts
of the United States, and the Superior Courts of each
organized Territory of the United States, shall from time to
time enlarge the number of commissioners, with a view to
afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor,
and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed by this act.

SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners
above named shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges
of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, in
their respective circuits and districts within the several
States, and the judges of the Superior Courts of the
Territories, severally and collectively, in term-time and
vacation; and shall grant certificates to such claimants, upon
satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and
remove such fugitives from service or labor, under the
restrictions herein contained, to the State or Territory from
which such persons may have escaped or fled.