Question

In the above passage, emerson is critical of which act as being "this filthy enactment"?
a. the designation of an arbitrary dividing line between slave and free states
b. an act allowing congress to upset the balance of power in the senate in favor of slave states
c. federal law requiring states to assist in the capture and return of slaves
d. a supreme court decision that prevented congress from banning slavery in the territories

Answer 1

The answer is C. Federal law requiring states to assist in the capture and return of slaves. The contentiousness of the fugitive slave act in the Compromise of 1850, was an attempt to prolong the inevitable war that was coming. Emerson's revulsion to the act was made in the context of the fact the men making these decisions were not illiterate savages, but learned men who could read and write and supposedly knew what is was to be human and should have abhorred (hated) anything to do with slavery.