It became thereafter almost a dead letter, for slaveholders found that not only did it fail to put them in possession of their slaves, but that the attempt to enforce it brought odium upon themselves and weakened the slave system.
From his autobiography, Douglass explains why the Fugitive Slave Act became ineffective and detrimental to slaveholders.
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It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
I believed I should get enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I suffered in other respects, and this to a hungry man is not a prospect to be regarded with indifference.