15. Samuel T. Spear, The Law-Abiding Conscience. And the Higher Law Conscience: With Remarks on the Fugitive Slave Question (New York: Lambert & Lane, 1850). (36 p.)


Essay considering the legal and moral ramifications of obeying the Fugitive Slave Law. The author’s major concern is that disagreements over the law would result in a dissolution of the Union. “I see not what benefit is to arise from the sundering of the political ties that make us one nation. I thank God that there is very little desire for this at the North. Most of the menaces proceed from the South. Let them well consider before they act. The attempt would be to themselves the most perilous experiment, a misguided people ever undertook. The weakness is with themselves. The power of the nation is not in the their hands, if brought into effective and vigorous action. This power is in the free States; and there it must remain, by the inevitable necessity of a natural cause. May God preserve the South from committing themselves to the dreadful issue.”