US Presidency
1851

The first was to make it a penal offense in all officers and magistrates of the Commonwealth to exercise the powers conferred on them by the act of Congress of the 12th of February, 1793, entitled An act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters, and which powers they were fully competent to perform up to the time of this inhibition and penal enactment; second, to refuse the use of the jails of the State for the detention of any person claimed as a fugitive slave. It is deeply to be lamented that the purpose of these enactments is quite apparent.