the Methodist Church, was seized eight days after the law went
into effect by order of the agent of Mary Brown of Baltimore, cut
off from all communication with his friends, hurried before a
commissioner, and on ex parte testimony was delivered into the
hands of the agent, by whom he was handcuffed and secretly
conveyed to Baltimore. Mr. Rhodes accounts for the enactment in
the following words: "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 refusal to carry out a stipulation of
the Constitution . . . . The admission of California was a bitter
pill for the Southern ultras, but they were forced to take it.
The Fugitive Slave Law was a taunt and a reproach to that part of
the North where the anti-slavery sentiment ruled supremely, and
was deemed a partial compensation." Clay expressed surprise that
States from which few slaves escaped demanded a more stringent
law than Kentucky, from which many escaped.

Whatever may have been the motives leading to the enactment, its
immediate effect was the elimination of one of the great national
parties, thus paving the way for the formation of parties along
sectional lines. Two years after the passage of the compromise
acts the Democratic national convention assembled to nominate a
candidate for the Presidency. The platform adopted by the party
promised a faithful execution of the acts known as the compromise
measures and added "the act for reclaiming fugitives from service
or labor included; which act, being designed to carry out an