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- Aug 25, 2012
After congress enacted the Missouri compromise of 1850 many northern states reacted to the strengthening of the property right of slaveholders by enacting more personal liberty laws. An example of this is Connecticut enacting an anti-kidnaping law in 1854. Would the concept of antikidnapping laws be consistent with the concept of States Rights? For example when Vermont passed an antikidnapping law and provided a provision that no person because of decent from African shall be disqualified from becoming a citizen of the state, did Vermont not have the legal right to do so? I do not see how anyone could oppose a state banning kidnapping of its citizens. Yet these antikidnapping and personal liberty laws are given as a reason for the drift to war.
Bringing the