The reminiscences . to offend anddefy the moral sense and the legitimate self-respect of theother. The old fugitive slave law, enacted in 1793, had author-ized the owner of the fugitive slave to arrest him, to bring himbefore a United States judge or any State judge or magis-trate and prove to the satisfaction of such judge or magistratethat the person arrested owed service to the claimant under thelaws of the State from which he had escaped; whereupon itwas made the duty of the judge or magistrate to give a certifi-cate that sufficient proof had been made; and this certificatewas declared a s
The reminiscences . to offend anddefy the moral sense and the legitimate self-respect of theother. The old fugitive slave law, enacted in 1793, had author-ized the owner of the fugitive slave to arrest him, to bring himbefore a United States judge or any State judge or magis-trate and prove to the satisfaction of such judge or magistratethat the person arrested owed service to the claimant under thelaws of the State from which he had escaped; whereupon itwas made the duty of the judge or magistrate to give a certifi-cate that sufficient proof had been made; and this certificatewas declared a sufficient warrant for removing the fugitive tothe State from which he had escaped. It further imposed afine of five hundred dollars for knowingly and willfully ob-structing the execution of this law, or for harboring or con-cealing the fugitive after notice that he was a fugitive is true that this law was but imperfectly enforced and that,in spite of it, many fugitive slaves were concealed and har- [ 108 ]. < < HO o <! ^ a THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZbored in the Northern States or escaped across them to this was not because the law was not stringent and severeenough; it was because, in the very nature of things, no law forthe capture and rendition of human beings fleeing fromslavery, ever so stringent and severe, could have been effec-tively enforced. On the contrary, the more stringent andsevere, the more provokingly it would offend the moral sym-pathies of human nature, and the more surely and generallyit would be disobeyed and thwarted. If the compromise of 1850 were to be a real measure ofconciliation, nothing could, therefore, have been more ill-ad-vised than to embody in it a law apt to bring the odium ofslavery in its most repulsive aspects to the very door of everyNorthern household. According to that law, the right of aclaimant to an alleged fugitive slave, or rather the right of ahuman being to his or her freedom, was not to be determ
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