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How Did The Compromise Of 1850 Contribute To The Cause Of The Civil War

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The point at which the Civil War became seemingly unstoppable can be traced to the Compromise of 1850, its passage known as the Fugitive Slave Act. This legislation marked a significant intensification of tensions between the North and South. Prior to the Compromise of 1850, the nation had experienced a series of political compromises attempting to maintain the balance between free and slave states. However, the Fugitive Slave Act incited widespread opposition in the North and galvanized abolitionist sentiment. The Compromise of 1850 also set the stage for future legislation and decisions that would further divide the country. Throughout the early U.S., tensions grew and divided the nation over issues such as slavery, and the state’s rights. Legislations such as the …show more content…

Southern slave owners were pleased with this, but northern abolitionists were greatly opposed to such actions. This fueling of tensions solidified the positions of pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions to the point that future attempts at compromise would be ineffective. As northern abolitionists gained support for their cause, the South began to fear northern dominance and aggression. Setting the stage to make things worse, the Compromise of 1850 influenced and led to events such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dredd Scott decision. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed new territories to determine whether or not they would allow slavery via popular sovereignty. This created further division within the United States as more new territories chose sides. The Supreme Court ruling in Dredd Scott v. Sanford in 1857 declared that African Americans were not citizens and therefore Congress could not prohibit the expansion of slavery into the territories. That ruling emboldened slave owners, seeing it as validation of their rights, while it enraged

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In 1857 the Dred Scott case was pulled into the supreme court. Dred Scott was claiming that even though he was a slave, He had been in a free country long enough to be a free citizen for the United States. The Supreme court ruled that blacks, with ancestors that were imported to become slaves weren’t aren’t able to become free american citizens. Therefore they weren’t able to appeal to a jury or able to to sue in federal court.

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Scott had filed another suit in court in 1854 against John Sanford. The case was favored to John Sanford but Scott turned to the U.S. Supreme court. On March 6, 1857, after 11 years of the Dred Scott v. Sanford, seven out of nine judges from the Supreme Court decided that slaves were not citizens of the United States. Which also led to the decision that they had no rights to sue

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Prior to the Civil War, multiple compromises were made to try to keep civility. The problems that led to the Civil War and increased sectionalism were the Missouri Compromise, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, The Compromise of 1850, and The Caning of Senator Sumner. These compromises and acts had problems with them because they had too many flaws. Before the Missouri Compromise was written in 1820, complications began to rise between the North and South.

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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.

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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.

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The reason the compromises and the act managed to delay the civil war was because slavery was still legal. The reason the civil war occurred was because issues such as Slavery, sectionalism, and the argument of State's rights vs. Federal rights were treated as compromises rather than issues. The southern states were content that the Missouri compromise was enacted because it allowed them to strength and practice the fugitive slave act. The northern states were content when the Nebraska Kansas act was enacted because it gave states to decide how they wanted to enter the union. It may seem that these compromises and act were ineffective and lack complexity, but for a decade it managed to keep the union together.

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Over the time period of the of the 1800s, many conflicts happened that lead to the the Civil War. The Civil War was a war that occurred between 1861 and 1865, between the Union States, also known as the North and the Confederates States of America, known as the South. The key issues that caused the South to secede from the Union and eventually lead to the Civil War were the Wilmot Proviso, slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Compromise of 1850, and the Election of 1860. As you may know, the Wilmot Proviso was an 1846 proposal that outlawed slavery in any territory gained from the War with Mexico. This led to people bringing slaves into new territories, which caused bigger conflicts between proslavery and antislavery supporters.

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The compromise of 1850 was the cause of the civil war. The problem started when California came in as a free state. The South didn’t want California to enter the Union because they would enter as a free state because the South was scared that if more free states came in they would eventually lose power in the Senate. The compromise of 1850 had four parts; California would come in as a free state, slave trade would be abolished in Washington D.C., Utah and New Mexico would decide whether or not they would allow slavery, and the fugitive slave act was made.

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Compromise of 1850 I believe the authors are correct; the overall benefit of the 1850 Compromise was to the North. The North received a huge advantage when California entered as a free state and tipped the senate balance permanently against the South. Few Northerners enforced the “Fugitive Slave Act”, which mandated that the states that escaped slaves fled to be held obligated to return the slaves to their masters upon their discovery and also subjected the persons who helped runaway slaves to criminal sanctions, such as heavy fines, imprisonment or both. The South did get tougher fugitive slave laws of 1850, the specifics were (A) runaway slaves weren’t given “due process” rights if caught; (B) the official that handled the case received

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What was the Compromise of 1850? Since "The Missouri Compromise of 1820" the northern states abolished slavery, however in the southern territories it was still legal. The southern and northern states were constantly arguing because of this topic, that 's why " The Compromise of 1850" was created. The Compromise of 1850 consisted of a series of bills that aimed to deal with slavery in the Confederacy. The Compromise made slavery illegal in California and in the District of Columbia, while in New Mexico and Utah the local ruler would have made the big decision.

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gained lots of land and the slave states and the abolitionist states were trying to determine who should get which territory so that the power in the senate would not fall to one’s advantage. This is where the main source of the conflict was made because if there were more slave states in the senate many legislations would most likely get passed in their favor. And the abolitionists were afraid that slave freedoms would become a minority in Congress. But if there were more abolitionist states in the senate then many legislations would most likely get passed in their favor. The slave states believed the abolitionist states were trying to limit slavery in the U.S..

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It was the Underground Railroad that caused so many slaves being able to get to safety. With a large number of slaves escaping using this method, slave owners convinced congress to pass the Fugitive Slave Act. Compromise of 1850, this was a series of legislation passed by Congress. This is the law that is known as the Fugitive Slave Law. The Compromise was comprised of several laws, and they stated that in District of Columbia slave trading was outlawed, but it was up to the state of Maryland to decide if there would be slavery, interstate slave trade could not be stopped by Congress, California became a free state under this law, voting would decide it slavery would be allowed in place like New Mexico and Utah, and it was illegal to aid or

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116 Words | 1 Pages

Prior to the Civil war, contentious issues had threatened to corrupt the national unity within the United States, but none more controversial and prominent than slavery. Congress, with multiple attempts, failed to seek compromises that pleased the North and South. In many scenarios, Congress often satisfied one side, but failed to do the same with the other, which created more turmoil. For instance, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision were two prime examples of the unsuccessful compromises, revolving around the prominent disagreement: slavery. Conclusively, Congress failed to find a way for the North and South to coexist cordially, which in the end divided the two to a greater extent, making the Civil War inescapable.

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Shortly after the United States won territory to the Pacific in the Mexican-American War, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 in an attempt to admit California as a free state but still appease the South with stronger fugitive slave laws (Demkin). They hoped this would fix the issue of the westward expansion of slavery but of course it did not. It created stronger sympathy among Northerners for escaped slaves and angered the south because it offset the feeble free state-slave state balance. This quick fix did not hold up long, and when Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 it only fueled the rage.

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Northern and Southern states developed different social and political beliefs which led into larger disagreements. Although many different factors contributed to the Civil War, the main causes were over issues such as humanitarian or ‘moral’ concerns towards slavery, conflicts between states versus federal rights and the election of 1860, making Abraham Lincoln as president and eventually causing Southern secession. The American Civil War began in 1861 and lasted 4 years, ending in 1865. It was one of the most deadly and bloodiest war since more than 600,000 died, but at the same time, it served to determine what kind of nation America would become. The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to ban slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.

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