The violent sectional feeling, however, to which this discussion had given birth, had sunk too deeply into the hearts of the people to be eradicated by any Compromise. Its baneful effects have been since witnessed in the manner in which every great national question has been debated. We cannot, of course, fill our pages with references to these really irrelevant matters, nor have we space to follow in all its developments, the illiberal policy pursued by Congress with regard to petitions from the North upon this subject. The treatment to which they have been subjected is generally known, and the reasons for and against it too well understood to require rehearsing. During the fifteen or twenty years following, the feeling against slavery grew constantly stronger in the Northern States, and gradually assumed a more thoroughly organized character. Anti-Slavery Societies were formed in the latter part of this period; the all-powerful machinery of the press was called in to sustain the movement; public discussions on the subject attracted general attention; and all possible means were employed, which the leaders of the party could devise, to propagate their views. The provisions of the Fugitive Law of 1793 began to be, for the first time, severely commented upon. The various laws which different States had passed, with a view to its impartial administration, were strictly scrutinized, and the Act itself denounced as arbitrary and unconstitutional. The State of Pennsylvania, unwilling that the freedom of negroes within her borders should be allowed to depend upon the unassisted judgment of Magistrates of the lowest jurisdiction, passed an Act in 1826 requiring all such cases to be heard before the Judges of the County Courts. In 1842, this law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in the celebrated case of Prigg v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In consequence of this decision, the Legislature passed an Act which had already been adopted in several of the Free States, by which all State Magistrates and Judges were forbidden to take cognizance of cases of fugitive slaves, the jails of the State were closed against the masters, and the whole subject was left to the jurisdiction of Congress, where it properly belonged.