if you didn't have that provision, there's another provision of
Article Four that says, anyone charged with a crime by
one state has to be extra, who's found in another
state has to be extradited back to the charging state.
And, and, and, and if you didn't have fugitive slave clause, maybe the South
could have said, okay, fine, we are going to charge this person with a crime.
We are going to charge the person with the crime of having stolen
the horse that he escaped on, because that was the
master's horse, having stolen the clothes and the shoes that he
was wearing because that was the master's clothes and the
master's shoes, having stolen himself, because he himself is slave property.
And it, it, and, and, and, under the, fugitive
from justice provision, the criminal justice provision, the Northern
state would've just had to send them back down
South for adjudication as to whether to they really committed
those crimes.
But the fugitive slave class, I think, fairly read, said no, actually the
Northern states are going to get a little bit more as part of this bargain.
They're going to be able to decide for themselves whether
the person is truly a fugitive slave or not.
At least that how you could have read the
Constitution, in a, in, in pro-freedom ways, anti-slavery ways.
The Taney court is going to read these provisions in very pro-slavery ways.
They're going to actually insist that Northern states send people, alleged
fugitive slaves, sort of back without being able to follow fair procedures.
They're going to uphold Congressional laws, implementing
the fugitive slave clause, even though there's
no express power in Article Four for
Congress to implement the fugitive state clause.
But, but Congress passes laws, and the Law
of 1850 is going to say the alleged fugitive,
he's only alleged, can't testify in
the Northern proceeding, can't call witnesses, doesn't
have a lawyer, and, and the judge who decides that, the magistrate will
be paid more if he decides the person's a fugitive slave then if
he decides the person is free, in a case of mistaken identity something.
So it's a dreadful law, the North is really going to rebel against it.
It's going to be one of the precipitating
factors in the civil war, the fugitive slave
clause, which gets implemented in pro-slavery ways.
It's, it's pro-slavery in it's bones to some extent, but it gets implemented
in even more aggressively pro-slavery ways by Congress and the Taney court.
But the real issue that precipitates the Civil War, the real race and slavery
issue, isn't the fugitive slave issue. There are not that many fugitive slaves.