1850 compromise 1 detailed

1. Advanced Higher History
The 1850 Compromise

2. What was the
Compromise?

3. Background
Tension grew over the prospect of California and New Mexico
entering the Union as free states thus ending the balance between
slave and free which southerners felt was essential for the
protection of Slavery
Matters came to a head during the election for a new speaker in the
House of representatives.
Over 3 weeks and 62 votes a new speaker still wasn’t elected and
threat of disunion became stronger.
“If, by your legislation you seek to drive us from California and New
Mexico, then I am for disunion”
Toombs

4. Several fist fights broke out in the House, Senator Davis challenged
another to a duel and Senator Henry Foote (both from Mississippi)
pulled a loaded revolver during a debate.
In the back ground was a convention of all southern Representatives
to be held in Nashville in June 1850

5. It was into this background that Henry Clay, the architect of 1820
Missouri Compromise stepped..
Although he was unable to get his compromise accepted on the 31
July 1850, the untimely death of President Taylor 9th July, enabled
Stephen Douglas, (huge drinker and hard worker, dead by 48) with
the helped by the pro compromise attitude of President Fillmore, to
eventually get the Compromise passed in sections.

8. The ins and outs of the Compromise
Henry Clay, U.S. senator from Kentucky, was determined to find a
solution. In 1820 he had resolved a fiery debate over the spread of
slavery with his Missouri Compromise. Now, thirty years later, the
matter surfaced again within the walls of the Capitol. But this time
the stakes were higher -- nothing less than keeping the Union
together. Would he succeed this time?
There were several points at issue:
1. The United States had recently acquired a vast territory -- the
result of its war with Mexico. Should the territory allow slavery, or
should it be declared free? Or maybe the inhabitants should be
allowed to choose for themselves?
.

9. 2. California -- a territory that had grown tremendously with the
gold rush of 1849, had recently petitioned Congress to enter the
Union as a free state. Should this be allowed? Ever since the
Missouri Compromise, the balance between slave states and free
states had been maintained; any proposal that threatened this
balance would almost certainly not win approval
3. There was a dispute over land: Texas claimed that its territory
extended all the way to Santa Fe.
4. Finally, there was Washington, D.C. Not only did the nation's
capital allow slavery, it was home to the largest slave market in
North America.

10. Compromise details
1. Texas would relinquish the land in dispute but, in compensation,
be given 10 million dollars -- money it would use to pay off its debt
to Mexico.
2. The territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would
be organized without mention of slavery. (The decision would be
made by the territories' inhabitants later, when they applied for
statehood - Popular Sovereignty)
3. Washington, the slave trade would be abolished in the District
of Columbia, although slavery would still be permitted.

11. 4. California would be admitted as a free state. To pacify slave-state
politicians, who would have objected to the imbalance created by adding
another free state;
5. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed.

12. Fugitive Slave Law - background
Even though the Northern states abolished slavery, they still could
not avoid their Constitutional obligation to enforce the slave laws of
the southern states.
A fugitive slave carried with him the legal status of slavery, even into
a territory which didn't have slavery.
Now, many of the states didn't do much about this and that's why
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was enacted, which made the federal
government responsible for tracking down and apprehending fugitive
slaves in the North, and sending them back to the South.
Many people who were not abolitionists felt they could not cooperate
with the Fugitive Slave Law. It gave slavery a human face.

13. Fugitive Slave Act
Of all the bills that made up the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive
Slave Act was the most controversial.
It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves.
It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial
For slaves attempting to build lives in the North, the new law was
disaster. Many left their homes and fled to Canada. During the
next ten years, an estimated 20,000 blacks moved to the
neighbouring country.
For Harriet Jacobs, a fugitive living in New York, passage of the
law was "the beginning of a reign of terror to the coloured
population."
Free blacks, too, were captured and sent to the South. With no
legal right to plead their cases, they were completely defenceless.

14. Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act made abolitionists all the more
resolved to put an end to slavery. The Underground Railroad became
more active, reaching its peak between 1850 and 1860.
The act also brought the subject of slavery before the nation. Many
who had previously been ambivalent about slavery now took a
definitive stance against the institution.
The Compromise of 1850 accomplished what it set out to do -- it
kept the nation united -- but the solution was only temporary. Over
the following decade the country's citizens became further divided
over the issue of slavery. The rift would continue to grow until the
nation itself divided.

16. The Compromise, however, contained the seeds of future discord.
•The precedent of popular sovereignty led to a demand for a
similar provision for the Kansas Territory in 1854, causing
bitterness and violence there -Bleeding Kansas.
•The application of the new Fugitive Slave Act triggered such a
strong reaction throughout the North that many moderate
antislavery elements became determined opponents of any
further extension of slavery into the territories.
•While the Compromise of 1850 succeeded as a temporary
expedient, it also proved the failure of compromise as a
permanent political solution when vital sectional interests were at
stake.

17. Many consider this a "final solution"—all except northern radicals; but
it is not really a compromise in that both sides reject the other's
conditions; everybody opposed part of it.
At the second Nashville convention in November only half of the
delegates turned up. It seemed fire eaters had been sidelined.
However South Carolina was determined next time they would act
alone.
Free Soil/ Northern radicals were also unhappy. Salmon B. Chase “the
question of slavery in the territories has been avoided. It has not
been settled” temporary reconciliation occurs among estranged
politicians, etc.
But, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law strikes fear in the hearts of
northern blacks and encourages more southerners to try to recover
escaped slaves.

18. Abolitionists often interfere with the enforcement of the law, and
such efforts exacerbate sectional feelings.
The sight of blacks being carried off to slavery outrages many
northerners, and southerners resent the northerners' refusal to obey
the law.
Some states pass personal liberty laws to protect free blacks, but the
Fugitive Slave Law forces many northerners to experience the
heartlessness of slavery.  The states' rights shoe is now on the other
foot.
The South has to back the Compromise or face secession; they have no
moral ground to stand on
South divides into camps
Radicals (secessionists)
Ultra-Unionists; oppose secession under any circumstances.
Conditional Unionists (moderates); many sought to retain Union.

19. Overview
Many Northerners continued to help fugitives escape, and made the
Underground Railroad more efficient and more daring than it had
been before.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852. When President Abraham Lincoln met Mrs.
Stowe, he is supposed to have said, "So you're the little lady who
wrote the book that started this big war.”
Kansas/Nebraska showed the weakness of the 1850 Compromise
Formation of Republican Party
Dred Scott highlighted divisions further
1850 Compromise prevented a split in the union but it was only a
temporary measure, the issue of slavery and its expansion was not
dealt with

20. McPherson
“The Compromise of 1850 undoubtedly averted a grave crisis. But hindsight
makes it clear that it only postponed the trauma”
“It [the Compromise] lanced the boil of tension that had festered in Congress”