The first person seized under the Fugitive Slave Law was a
slave named Shadrach. He was brought to trial before George
T. Curtis, United States Commissioner. One of the chief complaints
against the Fugitive Slave Law was that it did not give the
man claimed as a slave, where his liberty and that of his
posterity were at stake, the right to a jury trial which the
Constitution secured in all cases of property involving more
than twenty dollars, or in all cases where he was charged
with the slightest crime or offence. Further, the Commissioner
was to receive twice as much if the man were surrendered into
slavery as if he were discharged. Horace Mann, in one of
his speeches, commented on this feature of the law with terrible
severity. He also pointed out that the Commissioner was not
a judicial officer with an independent tenure, but only the
creature of the courts and removable at any time. He also
dwelt upon what he conceived to be the unfair dealing of the
Commissioners who had presided at the trial of the three
slaves who had been tried in Massachusetts, and added: "Pilate,
fellow-citizens, was at least a Judge, though he acted like
a Commissioner.
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