The Fugitive Slave Clause was one of the most controversial clauses in the Const
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The Fugitive Slave Clause was one of the most controversial clauses in the Constitution because it provided that escaped slaves would be returned to those who claimed ownership.
The Framers carefully drafted the clause to ensure that the Constitution did not give moral sanction to slavery.
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The Fugitive Slave Act and its returning to owner provision was passed in 1850. It was part of the Compromise of 1850.
1. Admittance of California as a Free State
2. Admittance of Texas as a Slave State, and defining its southern border to the most extreme, the Rio Grande.
3. Elimination of the buying and selling of slaves and a notorious slave jail in D.C.
4. Fugitive Slave Act.
5. Plan for Popular Soveriegnty, voting to see if they will allow slavery when admitted as states, for New Mexico Territory ( today AZ and NM) and for Nebraska Territory ( today Nebraska, Kansas, and some of Colorado )
It was points 4 and 5 which were the most controversial, as taking the Southern interpretation of the Fugitive Slave Act, it nullifies the Anti-Slavery Constitutions of the Northern states and California, because with the Dread Scott decision, there was really no way out of slavery. And then enforcing it meant riots and shootings at court houses in places like MA.
Point 5, the Stephan Douglas doctrine of Popular Sovereignty meant that whom every could pressure the situation would win., So pro-slavery people from Missouri were being poured into Kansas Territory, and they sacked the town of Clarence. Then John Brown struck back, dragging slave owners out of their cabins and hacking them to pieces with broad swords. When Southern states started announcing their cession after the election of 1960, this Kansas conflict spread to Missouri and Arkansas. And Brown had already moved on from Kansas to his Harper's Ferry Raid.
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