Newburyport, dated May 15th, 1850, wherein he urges the same
point, with great pains of argument.]

With such words did Mr. Webster endeavor to allay Northern alarm,
and to create the impression (which was created and which prevailed
extensively with his friends) that the Fugitive Law was only a
concession to Southern feeling, and that few or no attempts to
enforce it were likely to be made.

But when a few months had proved him a false prophet, and the
Southern chase after fugitive men, women, and children had become
hot and fierce, and in one or two instances the hunter had been
foiled in his attempts and had lost his prey, Mr. Webster changed
his tone, as follows:--

In May, 1851, at Syracuse, N.Y., he said: "Depend upon it,
the Law [the Fugitive Slave Law] will be executed in its
spirit and to its letter. It will be executed in all the
great cities--here in Syracuse, in the midst of the next
Anti-Slavery Convention, if the occasion shall arise."

Certainly, so far as in Mr. Webster lay, so far as was in the power
of Mr. Fillmore, and the officers of the United States Government
generally, and of the still larger crowd of _expectants_ of office,
nothing was left undone to introduce the tactics, discipline, and
customs of the Southern plantation into our Northern cities and
towns, in order to enforce the Fugitive Law.

* * * * *