States' rights
States' rights was an issue in the 19th century for those who felt that the federal government was superseded by the authority of the individual states and was in violation of the role intended for it by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Kenneth M. Stampp notes that each section used states' rights arguments when convenient, and shifted positions when convenient. For example, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was enacted by southern representatives to use federal authority to suppress northern states' rights. The constitution gave federal protection to slave property rights, and slaveholders demanded that this federal power should be strengthened and take precedence over northern state laws. Anti-slavery forces in northern legislatures had resisted this constitutional right in the form of state personal liberty laws that placed state laws above the federal mandate.