Summary

The Whig editor excerpted an article from the New York Times which argued that Northern legislation on personal liberty laws had been minimal (just two states passed such legislation). Most Northern states, the editor argued, have defeated such laws, passing instead ineffectual resolutions. Northern aggressiveness on the issue of slavery, according to this Whig argument, had been overdrawn and blown out of proportion.

EXCERPT:

"Resolutions may and probably have been passed by several State Legislatures, expressing opinions hostile to slavery and to the Fugitive Slave Law; but we need not remind our Southern contemporaries that these resolves have no legal validity, and are usually intended to have no effect beyond influencing some local election."

Full-text web version of newspaper

"In the heat of the campaign of 1860 both Franklin Democrats and Republicans shifted their emphasis on slavery."