Calhoun Argument For The Compromise Of 1850

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During the early part of the 1800's, the Northern states banned the buying, trading, and use of slaves. They also advocated to get rid of slavery in the entire country. The Southern states had been using slaves to run their economy since their founding, as they did not have access to the plentiful natural resources found to the North. This caused a major conflict for Congress and our country, who all sensed a civil war would come if nothing was done about it. Then, in an attempt to make both sides happy for as long as possible, Senator Henry Clay proposed his idea for the Compromise of 1850. It was hoped it would ease the tension, as well as solve border disputes in the Southwest and the debate over whether or not California should be a state. …show more content…

Senator John Calhoun wrote a speech against it, but was too ill to deliver it, so Senator James Murray of Virginia read it instead on March 4, 1850. Three days later, Senator Daniel Webster gave his “Seventh of March” speech in favor of the Compromise, beginning with the words "Mr. President, I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States... I speak for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my cause."
Webster spoke for about three hours to Congress. People all over the country heard about the speech, and gave it very mixed reactions. Many people, especially Southerners, supported him wholeheartedly when it came to intensifying the Fugitive Slave Act. There was enough backlash from his native New England, who claimed that he had been bribed to say some of what he said, that forced him to resign.
Eight months of debate in congress followed Clay’s proposal, with the three most prominent voices being the aforementioned John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay. During the summer that year, President Zachary Taylor died of the stomach flu, and was succeeded by his vice president, Millard Fillmore, who was much more in favor of the compromise. Eventually, the Compromise of 1850 managed to pass, but as several smaller