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That is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a
monster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article,
interpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these
three or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure
justice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the
destroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men,
to carry on their hellish work--how it can do this thing, I cannot
see. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a
certain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do
you find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to
hunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his
cruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to
compel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The
General Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their
separate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly
provides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service,
or labor due from the party claimed.
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