Coldwater (MI) Sentinel, "The Fugitive Slave Bill," October 18, 1850

     The Fugitive Slave Bill. 

We give place this week to the Fugitive Slave Bill, which has just become law, in order that all of our readers may make themselves acquainted with its provisions. Some of the sections are, in our opinion, too stringent, and yet, while we do not approve the law as a whole, we are not prepared to assert that it is not as acceptable as any bill which could have passed Congress. it is impossible for northerners and southerners to see alike upon this question. We recognize the colored man as a citizen, southerners claim him as property, hence the necessity of compromise, as well as the impossibility of agreeing. The bill is now a law, and if it is found to give more privileges to the slave-holders, than he is entitled to under the Constitution of the United States, it should be modified at the next session, if not, hard as it may seem, it should remain as it is. This point will be tested practically in a short time, and we are disposed to watch it, rather than join loud in condemnation, and attempt to prove its evil effects and provisions, by scaring the colored citizens and advising them to flee to Canada. 

   We are told that hundreds of free negroes are flying in armed bands,--that in our neighboring villages, the colored population are running away from the officers of the law, such has been the case here. Letters have been received advising persons supposed to be fugitives that the papers were out for their arrest, they have fled, and when the truth is known, no papers have been issued, and the colored men have been injuriously hoaxed by their pretended friends. These stories are in circulation for political effect. In Michigan, New York, and other States elections are soon to take place, and it is the policy of some men to get up a stampede of colored folks to effect their objects. This is why the opposition to the bill is so violent, before its practical workings have been seen, and this has caused an excitement at the expense of the blacks. While we are in favor of the modification of the bill, we are not disposed to make it worse than it is by misrepresentation or unnecessary agitation. It will work its own remedy.