This case exemplifies continued confrontation between the powers of states (especially northern ones) and federal legal jurisdiction, being a further escalation toward the Civil War. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was the focus of this and many similar confrontations in which slave owners wanted to exercise their ability to recapture escaped persons in non-slavery states while even requiring the cooperation of these non-participating states. This case took place in Racine, Wisconsin where Joshua Glover lived after escaping from his imprisoner, Benjamin Garland, in St. Louis, Missouri. Two abolitionists raided and freed Glover from jail but were then arrested and charged. The abolitionists, one named Booth, appealed in Wisconsin Supreme Court on the grounds that the Fugitive Slave Law was unconstitutional because Wisconsin had retorted with passage of a personal liberty law to combat the federal law. Wisconsin Supreme Court released him but the US District Marshal, obtained a writ of error from the Supreme Court for review of the Wisconsin law. The US Supreme court then reversed the Wisconsin court’s decision and upheld the power of the federal Fugitive Slave law.
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