How Did The Constitution Contribute To The Compromise Of 1850

By the 1850s the Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created as can be seen by, Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision. During the Compromise of 1850, the Northern states had prohibited slave trade and California was admitted as a free state. However, the Southern states permitted slave holding and had no slavery restrictions in Utah or New Mexico territories. The Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850 said that all runaway slaves have to be returned to their masters, however, the problem with this is people would go to free states and

The compromise consisted of various laws such as ones admitting California as a free state, and creating the Utah and New Mexico territories where slavery would be decided by the people living in those areas. Also, in Washington D.C. slaveholding was still permitted, but the slave trade was prohibited. This compromise also settled a border dispute between New Mexico and Texas. With the admittance of California as a free-state the balance of the Senate was in favor of the free

Sanford. In this case Dred Scott a slave who had lived with his master in a free-state the returned to a slave-state felt he should be given his freedom. In this decision the Supreme Court decided that no slave or free black man could be granted U.S citizenship. This meant that no black man had the right to petition the court for their freedom. Chief Justice Roger Taney concluded “Congress possessed no authority to pass a law depriving persons of their slave property in the territories. The Missouri Compromise, therefore, had always been unconstitutional”(Brinkley, 2007). This decision led to even more conflict between the North and the South because the North did not agree with the Supreme Court’s