It gives the right to reclaim slaves; and that right is,
as Judge Douglas says, a barren right, unless there is legislation that
will enforce it.
The mere declaration, "No person held to service or labour in one State,
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or
labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such
service or labour may be due," is powerless without specific legislation
to enforce it. Now, on what ground would a member of Congress who is
opposed to slavery in the abstract, vote for a fugitive law, as I would
deem it my duty to do? Because there is a constitutional right which
needs legislation to enforce it. And, although it is distasteful to me,
I have sworn to support the Constitution; and, having so sworn, I
cannot conceive that I do support it if I withhold from that right any
necessary legislation to make it practical. And if that is true in
regard to a fugitive-slave law, is the right to have fugitive slaves
reclaimed any better fixed in the Constitution than the right to hold
slaves in the Territories? For this decision is a just exposition of the
Constitution, as Judge Douglas thinks.
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