Some southern people eventually saw the cruelness of slavery and fought against it to the best of their ability. Document I shows a street poster from 1851. This sign advises African Americans to avoid policemen because they are slave catchers. Inferring that any police officers can and will arrest blacks because they may be slaves. In 1850 Senator Clay installed the Compromise of 1850 to avert the crisis between the north and south.
The Compromise of 1850 was an effort by the United States Congress that was drafted by Henry Clay, who was both the U.S. Senator and the House Representative of Kentucky. This compromise was a series of acts passed in 1850, attempted to reconcile Northern and Southern interests to preserve the Civil War. After the start of the Mexican-American War, conflicts about whether to allow slavery in those new territories to polarized Northern and Southern of the United States raised up. Northerners were in favor the Compromise, since they thought it’s a good chance to stop slavery. On the other hand, Southerners were against it, they thought it threatened their political power because the join of territory--California would disturb the balance of 15 free states and 15 slave states.
Henry Clay was responsible once again in writing the compromise of 1850 as he did the Missouri compromise in 1820. This was seen as a chance to extended the promises made by the compromise of 1820. In this compromise, there was a settlement in the border issues between New Mexico and Texas. There was also the admission of California as a free state which would balance out with Texas as a slave state. With Texas becoming a slave state, it abandoned its claims north of the 36° 30’ latitude line, because the compromise of 1820 had forbidden slavery above that line.
As a result of the Compromise of 1850, which defused the quarrel between the free Northern States and the slave Southern States, the territories acquired during the Mexican-American War were determined to be free, slave, or dependent upon the principle of popular sovereignty. California was admitted as a free state, the Utah and New Mexico territories were to be determined by popular sovereignty, the Texas-New Mexico boundary was solidified, and slave trade was terminated in Washington, D.C., making it easier for the South to recover fugitive slaves (Document A). As stated by an Anonymous Georgian in “Plain Words for the North,” everything the South could ask for was embodied in the Constitution, but two provisions were necessary to the South’s success – “the recognition of slavery where the people choose it and the remedy for fugitive slaves” (Document B). The North saw popular sovereignty and the remedy of fugitive slaves as deceptive encouragement of immoral and unconstitutional activity (Document C). But, southerners viewed the North’s assumption of ownership to be unconstitutional.
In fact, either sides at this time refused to acknowledge the other’s system and thus posed a high risk of war. Therefore, President Polk might have to spend a long time with his officers and cabinet to come up with a solution for this issue. Consequently, it was possible that both countries would eventually agree to an early Compromise proposed by Henry Clay, which was not supposed to appear until 1850 if the war was waged. This Compromise would admit California into the United States as a free state while Texas was considered a slave state and all the remaining area would remain undetermined (“ The
Compromise of 1850 - 1850 The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state, declared the remaining territory from the Mexican cession to be voted slave or free through popular sovereignty, abolished slave trade in the District of Columbia, and created the Fugitive Slave Act. The south felt cheated by the compromise as the
Michael Jones R. Raby HIS 131 11/18/16 Compromise of 1850: Essay The meaning of the Compromise of 1850 was as a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and Free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War (1846–48). Also I am going to talk about how it was important to the slaves. One of the legislative bills that was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850 was a new version of the Fugitive Slave Act. At first, Henry Clay introduced an omnibus bill covering these measures.
While President Zachary Taylor was in office, the issue of slavery dominated. Taylor encouraged New Mexico and California to write legal status of slavery into their constitutions. The compromise of 1850 allowed California to be admitted into the union, as undivided and a free state on September 9 of 1850. President Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States who was part of the Whig political party; he once served as a soldier then as an officer against our nations battle from the Mexican- American war. The Mexicans army under General Santa Anna whose army was close to 20,000 was defeated at Buena Vista by American troops lead by Taylor whose army was 6,000.
I agree with what you have stated in your post. The Compromise of 1850 was a very important event that helped lead up to the civil war. The result of the compromise was 15 free states and 16 slave states. I also found that California was the first free state admitted as a free state and that the rest of the Mexican belongings were decided by popular sovereignty, which was a vote of the people of the territories.
The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt by the U.S Congress to settle divisive issues between the North and South, including slavery expansion, apprehension in the North of fugitive slaves, and slavery in the District of Columbia. The Compromise of 1850 failed because Senator John C. Calhoun from the South and Senator William Seward from the North could not agree on what Henry Clay was putting down. Part of the compromise was to make California a slavery free state which benefits the North, and enforcing a stricter fugitive slave law which benefits the South. Both the North and South opposed what the other was benefiting from. What sparked the failure of the Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
Texas was added to the United States after a war with Mexico. This questions whether Texas would be added as a slave state or not. Further west California was a troubling state as it fell above and below the line in the Missouri compromise. The Missouri Compromise was created so that these issues would be solved in a way that would benefit both the North and South, but primarily helped the North. The compromise states that there would be a line at a certain latitude in the United States that would be a “Border” between Slave states and non-slaves states.
In contrast, other politicians were trying to create temporary solutions to the slavery issue. One of these provisional plans was the Compromise of 1850 which was a series of bills planned by Henry Clay and later overseen by Stephen Douglas that would try to resolve the concerns of slavery in new territories. Therefore, California was admitted to the Union as a free state and the territories in the west determined the issue of slavery based on popular sovereignty. Following this, slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C. and the new Fugitive Slave Act was passed. The Fugitive Slave Act was a portion of the Compromise of 1850 and it gave a new protection to slavery.
With the adding of California in the Compromise of 1850, the issue of territorial expansion had become subject to debate. This was replaced by the argument over whether the states would be added as slave states or free
In 1850, California was admitted to the Union with the understanding that it is a free state; meaning that it did not allow the practice of slavery. That was the intention at least, to forbid the practice of slavery, but as these scholars discuss, there were varying definition of “slavery” and the different terms being used in lieu of the specific term. Morrison writes, “[During] Off-year congressional elections in 1850 and 1851 demonstrated the public’s general acceptance of the compromise .” There seemed to be a general conscious of the admittance of a free state in California, but the Southern Democrats, also known as the Chivs, did not stand for it and felt that the admission of California as a free state was a detrimental fraud to the South .
Clay’s compromise fell through, because he attempted to force all of his ideas into one package. Later on in the year, Douglas managed to pass Clay’s compromise, albeit slightly altered. The goal of the compromise was to settle the conflict about slavery, but it only helped to push back the inevitable. Many Southerners were upset about how California was allowed into the Union as a free state, upsetting the balance of free vs slave states. Utah and New Mexico were allowed to chose whether or not they would become slave states (using popular sovereignty), only highlighting Douglas’s wishy-washy attitude about slavery.
