or four decades, the debate over the extension of slavery into the western territories had divided North and South. On several occasions, national leaders had tried to reach a workable, permanent solution, without success. During the 1850s, the nation's political system became incapable of peacefully resolving the differences separating North and South. "Read and Ponder the Fugitive Slave Law!" Broadside, 1850. GLC 1862 The most divisive element of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Law, which permitted any escaped slave to be seized and returned solely on an affidavit of anyone claiming to be his or her owner. The law also stripped fugitive slaves of the right to a jury trial and the right to testify in their own defense, in addition to ensnaring many free blacks wrongfully. Harriet Beecher Stowe to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, March 20, 1852. GLC 1585 On Uncle Tom's Cabin's first day of publication, Harriet Beecher Stowe sent a copy to the British royal family. Slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833, and Stowe holds up Britain as a model for Americans. Abraham Lincoln, fragment of draft, "House Divided" speech, ca. December 1857. GLC 2533 In this fragment, Abraham Lincoln offers an early formulation of the ideas that he would advance in his speech accepting the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1858. Invoking the famous biblical words, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," he argued that there was a conspiracy to make slavery lawful "in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South."