About this record
After Joshua Glover had been rescued, abolitionist leader Sherman Booth was arrested and prosecuted under the federal Fugitive Slave Law. His attorney was a young Milwaukee lawyer named Byron Paine (1827-1871) who sympathized with the abolitionist cause. Before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Paine made an impassioned argument in behalf of Booth that attracted national attention. His argument was printed in pamphlet form and distributed by the thousands in Boston.Citation
Paine, Byron. "Unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Act : argument of Byron Paine, Esq., and opinion of Hon. A.D. Smith, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin." ([Milwaukee : Free Democrat Office, 1854?]); online facsimile at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1379