CHAPTER XVI.

GROWING AUDACITY OF THE SLAVE POWER.


So closely is the life of Lincoln intertwined with the growth of the
slave power that it will be necessary at this point to give a brief
space to the latter. It was the persistent, the ever-increasing, the
imperious demands of this power that called Lincoln to his post of
duty. The feeling upon the subject had reached a high degree of tension
at the period we are now considering. To understand this fully, we must
go back and come once again down through the period already treated.
There are three salient points of development.

The first of these is the fugitive slave law. At the adoption of the
Constitution it was arranged that there should be no specific approval
of slavery. For this reason the word "slave" does not appear in that
document. But the idea is there, and the phrase, "person held to
service or labor," fully covers the subject. Slaves were a valuable
property. The public opinion approved of the institution. To set up one
part of the territory as a refuge for escaped slaves would be an
infringement of this right of property, and would cause unceasing
friction between the various parts of the country.

In 1793, which happens to be the year of the invention of the cotton
gin, the fugitive slave law was passed. This was for the purpose of
enacting measures by which escaped slaves might be recaptured. This law
continued in force to 1850. As the years passed, the operation of this
law produced results not dreamed of in the outset. There came to be
free states, communities in which the very toleration of slavery was an