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On May 26, 1851, Daniel Webster spoke from the balcony of Frazee Hall in Syracuse, New York. He had come to Syracuse, a city which had hosted a number of anti-slavery conventions, as part of an effort to promote obedience to the new Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The law had been passed in an effort to appease the Southern states after the admission of land gained from the Mexican War as free territory, and he feared disunion if it was not enforced in the North. The law, however, was repugnant to many Northerners not only because of its pro-slavery nature but also because it infringed on the individual rights of white citizens. According to the terms of the new fugitive slave law the federal government would have jurisdiction over slave cases, appointing special commissioners to issue warrants for the arrest and return of fugitives to their masters. It also imposed fines or jail sentences upon anyone who aided a fugitive or refused to obey the law. Syracuse was one of the first towns to organize in resistance to the law, and Webster hoped to send a message to the city in his speech:
They say the law will not be executed. Let them take care, for those are pretty bold assertions. The law must be executed, not only in carrying back the slave, but against those guilty of treasonable practices in resisting its execution. Depend on it the law will be executed in its spirit, and to its letter. It will be executed in all the great cities; here in Syracuse; in the midst of the next Anti-slavery Convention, if the occasion shall arise...(2)
A murmur of dissent rippled through the crowd as he spoke these words.(3) Within months the citizens of Syracuse would test Webster's prophecy.
THE LAW
Initial protest against the law in Syracuse arose out of the town's free black community. On September 23, only five days after the law's passage, a meeting was called at the African Congregational Church. The black population in Syracuse was small, an estimated 350 people out of a general population of 21,900, but was vigorous in their efforts to oppose the law.
At the September meeting, they organized against the legislation, electing a black vigilance...