In this accidental manner was
legislation on this subject first attempted.
There is no evidence that fugitives were often seized under this Act.
From a competent inquirer we learn that twenty-six years elapsed before
it was successfully enforced in any Free State. It is certain, that, in
a case at Boston, towards the close of the last century, illustrated
by Josiah Quincy as counsel, the crowd about the magistrate, at the
examination, quietly and spontaneously opened a way for the fugitive,
and thus the Act failed to be executed. It is also certain, that, in
Vermont, at the beginning of the century, a Judge of the Supreme Court
of the State, on application for the surrender of an alleged slave,
accompanied by documentary evidence, gloriously refused compliance,
unless the master could show a Bill of Sale from the Almighty. Even
these cases passed without public comment.
In 1801 the subject was introduced in the House of Representatives by
an effort for another Act, which, on consideration, was rejected.
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