Fugitive Slave Clause

Abolitionists

-led by Salmon Chase -claimed Congress lacked the power to pass the fugitive slave laws * slaveholders responded that personal liberty laws constituionaly interfered with constitutional federal fugitive slave laws

Critics of the federal laws prohibiting slavery:

1.) Congress had no power to pass such measures 2.) Such laws deprived slaveholders of their property without due process of law

The Fugitive Slave Clause did not clarify several matters:

1.) Congressional power over the rendition process 2.) If the federal government could regulate the rendition process, that power was exclusive or concurrent

Debates over two issues were intense:

1.) Federal power to pass Fugitive slave laws 2.) Federal power to prohibit slavery in American Territories

Critics of the federal fugitive slave clause:

1.) insisted Congress was not authorized to regulate the rendition process 2.) federal laws denied alleged slaves the right to trial by jury

Raised issues concerning:

1.) national powers 2.) federalism 3.) judicial power 4.) individual rights

Personal Liberty Laws

Adopted by Northern States and required masters to rely on state officials to locate and detain fugitives

Fugitive Slave Clause of 1793

Allowed masters to recover slaves on their own with a minimal legal hearing before taking them back to their home states.

Article 1V, Clause 2:

Requires states to return escaped slaves

Slave states claim:

The Fugitive Slave Clause of 1793 prohibited any state law that might interfere in anyway with the rendition process determined by Congress.