The Civil Rights act and the Fugitive Slave law

Southern representatives strongly resent the passage of the Civil Rights act, and question the authority of those who signed the bill into law.

The Sumnerites profess to find their authority for the Civil Rights act in the same part of the Federal Constitution which justified the passage of the Fugitive Slave law. Now, this latter law was unquestionably a constitutional ; yet, when in 1852 Mr.Clay, of Alabama, asked Mr.Sumner whether he would aid in the execution of this law, the only reply was : "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing"?

“The Civil Rights act and the Fugitive Slave law,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed June 1, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/121.