Re:What did British officers think of the American civil war...
by dragonwriter on Saturday May 21, 2022 @02:14AM
(#31455692)
> Meaning, I take it, that the couldn't trust northern states to actually obey the Fugitive Slave Act?
You mean the one (either the 1793 or the 1850 one, though the latter was both worse in this regard and—ironically given the common argument that the Confederacy was motivated by “states rights”—also violated federalism by commandeering state officers for enforcement rather than relying federal resources to enforce federal law) that unconstitutionally presumptively denied habeas rights to anyone alleged by a private person to be an escaped slave?
> But the north was also wrong because it was undermining the very institution of law
You mean the one (either the 1793 or the 1850 one, though the latter was both worse in this regard and—ironically given the common argument that the Confederacy was motivated by “states rights”—also violated federalism by commandeering state officers for enforcement rather than relying federal resources to enforce federal law) that unconstitutionally presumptively denied habeas rights to anyone alleged by a private person to be an escaped slave?
> But the north was also wrong because it was undermining the very institution of law
No, that was also the South.