[Heyworth]

But the point was the loss of sovereignty.

What does sovereignty have to do with the return of runaway slaves from other states? If Brazil refuses to extradite some criminal, we don't argue that Brazil has undermined our sovereignty. You can argue property rights and their equal protection, but I fail to see how you can argue sovereignty. You're actually requiring that free states surrender sovereignty in order to support the slave system.

[groanup]

First of all, Brazil wasn't one of "these" United States and didn't fall under the Constitution and any application of interstate commerce law. So I'm not sure that point is relevant.

As cited in the articles, the issue of slavery was a symptom, states rights, lack thereof, was the disease. As unfortunate as the wording is it doesn't detract from the central issue.