Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1885 — The First Fugitive Slave Law. [ARTICLE]

The First Fugitive Slave Law.

This was passed in 1793, and was entitled “an act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters.” It originated in the Senate, passed the House without debate by a vote of forty-eight to seven, and was approved by President Washington, Feb. 12, 1793. It was in four sections. The first two applied to fugitive criminals, and merely specified the manner is which the demand was to be made upon the Governor, and made no attempt to enforce the surrender of the criminal if it should be refused. By the third section, the owner, his agent or attorney, was empowered to seize his fugitive slave, take him before a Federal court, or before any magistrate of the county, -city or town wherein the arrest should be made, and make proof by affidavit or oral testimony of his ownership, and the certificate thereof was to be sufficient warrant for the removal of the fugitive to the State or Territorf from - which he had fled. By the fourth section the rescue, concealment or obstruction of the arrest of a fugiiive slave were made offenses liable to a fine of SSOO.