One of the chief complaints against the Fugitive Slave Law was that it did not give the man claimed as a slave, where his liberty and that of his posterity were at stake, the right to a jury trial which the Constitution secured in all cases of property involving more than twenty dollars, or in all cases where he was charged with the slightest crime or offence.

Further, the Commissioner was to receive twice as much if the man were surrendered into slavery as if he were discharged.

Horace Mann, in one of his speeches, commented on this feature of the law with terrible severity.

He also pointed out that the Commissioner was not a judicial officer with an independent tenure, but only the creature of the courts and removable at any time.

He also dwelt upon what he conceived to be the unfair dealing of the Commissioners who had presided at the trial of the three slaves who had been tried in Massachusetts, and added: "Pilate, fellow-citizens, was at least a Judge, though he acted like a Commissioner." Elizur Wright, a well-known Abolitionist, editor of the _Chronotype,_ was indicted in the United States Court for aiding in the rescue of Shadrach.