[Wallace T.]

Had Lincoln not acted, giving the upper Southern states a reason for secession, a fugitive slave who fled one of the secessionist states would have entered a slave state still in the Union. It is hard to believe that
unless the fugitive made it to a free state, he would not be returned to his former owner in the seceded state if he were caught in a Unionist slave state. Or possibly re-enslaved in the Unionist slave state.

[FLT-bird]

Lincoln pointed out that the fugitive slave clause of the constitution would not apply to a foreign country. There’s no question that’s correct.