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Section 4 invests the appointed commissioners with 'authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or labor ... to the State or Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.'
Section 5 specifies the penalties for failure to comply with warrants issued
under the provisions of the act:
Should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to serve such warrant, or
other process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to
execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of
one thousand dollars.
Furthermore, should an arrested fugitive manage to escape from custody,
the marshal or deputy would be liable to prosecution, and could be sued for
'the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State,
Territory
or District whence he escaped.'
Commissioners were also empowered 'to
summon and call to their aid the bystanders,' and any failure to co-operate
with such a summons would be a violation of the law:
All good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and
efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required.
Section 6
And be it further enacted, That when a person held to service or labor in
any State or Territory of the United States, has heretofore or shall
hereafter escape into another State or Territory of the United States, the person
or persons to whom such labor or service may be due ... may pursue and
reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one
of the courts, judges or commissioners aforesaid, ... or by seizing and
arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process, and
by taking, or causing such person to be taken, forthwith before such court,
judge, or commissioner...; and upon satisfactory proof being made, ... to
use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary, under the
circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back to
the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In
no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged
fugitive be admitted in evidence ...
Section 7
And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and
willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant ... from arresting such a
fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid,
or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor,
from the custody of such claimant ...; or shall aid, abet, or assist such
person ... to escape from such claimant ...; or shall harbor or conceal such
fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after
notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from
service or labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be
subject to
a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding
six months ...; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil
damages to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one
thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by
action of debt ...
Section 8 deals with the payments to be made to various officials for their
part in the arrest, custody and delivery of a fugitive to his or her claimant.
In effect, the financial incentives authorized under this clause turned the
pursuit of escaped slaves into a species of bounty-hunting:
The marshals, their deputies, and the clerks of the said District and
Territorial courts, shall be paid for their services ...; and in all cases where the
proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee of ten
dollars ... The person or persons authorized to execute the process ...
shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for each person he or
they may arrest and take before any such commissioner.
Section 9 stipulates that if the claimant suspects an attempt will be made to rescue the fugitive by force, then the arresting officer is required 'to retain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said claimant.'
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