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Still don't know why it was underground in the north..
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It was underground because of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which not only made it a crime to assist a runaway slave and required captured slaves to be returned to their owners, but it allowed federal marshals to seize local citizens and force them to help in the capture of slaves.

One of the reasons that the Act passed into history was that northern juries would commonly refuse to convict people who were indicted for failing to obey it.

It should be recalled that the war that Lincoln waged against the southern states was not about slavery. Indeed, anyone can read Lincoln's first inaugural address (1861) where he states:

"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

As can easily be read in the plain text, the issue was the refusal of the South to pay the taxes (commonly called the Tariff of Abomination) the federal government imposed on it. Indeed, Lincoln in the following, says if the South will pay what it owes, there will be no invasion:

"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere."

Towards the end of the war, Lincoln freed slaves, but only in the States that had seceded.

http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html

Certainly, slavery was a hotly debated social policy issue at the time of this war, but no more so that to claim that the 1992 Los Angeles riots (when Rodney King was injured) were about abortion.