slavery in the national capital, stating, "We should rejoice to witness the removal of this stain [slavery in Washington, D.C.] upon the national character." Despite much publicly stated opposition in the North, the southern slave states had enough votes in the US Congress to pass the Fugitive Slave Act. The Law required all citizens to support capturing escaped slaves and returning them to their masters, even if found in northern states that prohibited slavery. US Marshals were to enforce the law. Its passage aroused the anti-slavery movement in Syracuse. On October 4, 1850, a biracial group chaired by A.H. Hovey, mayor of Syracuse, appointed a Vigilance Committee of thirteen men. They included Wheaton, Lyman Clary, Vivus W. Smith, Charles B. Sedgwick, Hiram Putnam, E.W. Leavenworth, Abner Bates, George Barnes, P.H. Agan, J.W. Loguen, minister of the AME Zion Church; John Wilkinson, R.R. Raymond, and John Thomas. They intended to resist the Fugitive Slave Law and sent copies of their resolution to the newspaper, political representatives, and Congress. On October 15, Wheaton spoke to a meeting at the Congregational Church to make "common cause, in view of various arrests rumored to have been made, or to be made under the Fugitive Slave act, and on charges of Treason." The meeting was led by men of both races: Enoch Marks, white, and George B. Vashon, African American. The group was committed to nonviolent action, and members pledged "our fortunes and our sacred honor, to stand by those individuals on whom this hand of government may fall; that we will help to bear with them any pecuniary losses to which they may be subjected, and manifest in every way we can, our sympathy for them, and show that we suffer as those who are bound with them." Other speakers included the Reverend R.R. Raymond, the Rev. Samuel J. May, William H. Burleigh, Lyman Clary and George Barnes. On October 1, 1851, Wheaton was part of a biracial group who rescued William "Jerry" Henry, an escaped slave apprehended and jailed in Syracuse. That evening, a crowd of two to three thousand people gathered outside the jail. The crowd eventually rescued and freed Henry. At the time, Wheaton was with fellow abolitionist Judge Charles Sedgwick to prepare a kidnapping complaint against the agent sent to catch Henry. When the federal government investigated the case, it traced the file used to cut Henry's fetters to the