ABSTRACT
The cooperation of northern states in the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law was an emotionally charged issue, but it involved relatively few slaves and a relatively minor threat to slavery in the South. Far more consequential was the issue of slavery in the territories. Lincoln had been a Whig for most of the life of that political party - twice as long as he was a Republican. And the Whigs generally took a broad view of what the Constitution allowed the federal government to do. At the very time that Abraham Lincoln's awareness of constitutional questions was on the rise, the issue of slavery in the territories was injected into American politics. Once Lincoln became president and faced civil war, his clear record on the Constitution became paradoxical and unclear. The most telling event was his revocation of Fremont's emancipation proclamation in Missouri in 1861.
