* * * _There is no danger of any such violation being
perpetrated."[A]--Webster's Speech on the Compromise Bill, in
the United States Senate, 17th of July, 1850, edition of
Gideon & Co., Washington_, pp. 23-25.
[Footnote A: See also Mr. Webster's letter to the Citizens of
Newburyport, dated May 15th, 1850, wherein he urges the same
point, with great pains of argument.]
With such words did Mr. Webster endeavor to allay Northern alarm,
and to create the impression (which was created and which prevailed
extensively with his friends) that the Fugitive Law was only a
concession to Southern feeling, and that few or no attempts to
enforce it were likely to be made.
But when a few months had proved him a false prophet, and the
Southern chase after fugitive men, women, and children had become
hot and fierce, and in one or two instances the hunter had been
foiled in his attempts and had lost his prey, Mr. Webster changed
his tone, as follows:--
In May, 1851, at Syracuse, N.Y., he said: "Depend upon it,
the Law [the Fugitive Slave Law] will be executed in its
spirit and to its letter.
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