The platform thus explicitly committed the party to the support of the policy of rendering aid to fugitive slaves.

Four years later the platform of the Free-soil party contained no reference whatever to fugitive slaves, but that of 1852 denounced the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as repugnant to the Constitution and the spirit of Christianity and denied its binding force on the American people.

The Republican platform of 1856 made no reference to the subject.
The Underground Railroad filled an insignificant place in the general plan for emancipation, even in the minds of the directors.

It was a lesser task preparatory to the great work.

As to the numbers of slaves who gained their freedom by means of it, there is a wide range of opinion.