How did people on both sides respond to the Fugitive Slave Act?

Southerners were generally quite happy that federal law finally enshrined their right to their property (escaped slaves). They had been angered by the fact that a Black person needed only to cross the midway point of the USA for them to arrive in Free State were the slave would no longer be pursued. By making it a federal law, the North could no longer ignore their requirement to return escaped property.

Northerners were, generally speaking, outraged because they saw it as a victory for Southern interests. They saw it as reach by the South into Northern affairs. The North had outlawed slavery and now, they would be required to enforce it. A much smaller portion of Northerners actively supported abolition for the whole union and a law like this further entrenched slavery, making it a huge step backwards in their view and serving to anger them.