States judge or court commissioner, and made the certificate of such officer conclusive; it allowed proof to be made by affidavit on the part of the claimant, but shut out the testimony of the fugitive entirely; it increased the penalties for resistance to the enforcement of the law and for concealment of the fugitive, and contained other obnoxious provisions.
This law was a part of the compromise legislation of that year, but, like most compromises, it failed to satisfy either party. Instead of settling the matter, it simply added fuel to the flame of excitement in the North, and nowhere in the West perhaps did the excitement run higher than in Wisconsin. The immigration into this State from the New England States and New York was very heavy during the early fifties, and the immigrants brought with them their love of freedom and hatred of slave-catchers. On the 19th of May, 1848, Sherman M. Booth arrived at Milwaukee. He was young in years, but he had stumped Connecticut for the Liberty party for six successive years. He was an enthusiastic, perhaps a fanatical, abolitionist, and he came West to further the cause that he loved by editing a newspaper. The "American Freeman" was then being published in Milwaukee, and Booth purchased a half interest in it and became its editor. He changed its name to the "Wisconsin Freeman," and after the Freesoil party was organized the name was again changed to the "Free Democrat," and he became the sole proprietor. For several years it was the only out and out abolition paper in the State. Probably it made up in quality for what it lacked in quantity. The times were exciting, and Booth contributed his share to the excitement without difficulty. After the compromise acts of 1850, his denunciations of the slave power were more
