Inevitable Events of the Civil War The Civil War, an event that has proved important to our nation’s history, was destined to occur since to very first decision regarding the country was made. All the events that lead up to the Civil War were inevitable and could not have been changed simply by reworking a decision. Although the nation started on the path to a civil war with the very first vote of the Constitutional Convention, what really jumpstarted war was the Industrial Revolution. From there, more events occurred that just added fuel to the fire. Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law were among the events that polarized the nation even further. As it could be seen in the Constitutional Convention, the states were divided on many issues important to the nation. This ranged from federal and states …show more content…
Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 was one of these notable events. A compromise aims to please all sides in an argument, a goal that is often just out of reach in these situations. In September of 1850, Henry Clay proposed a series of five bills in an attempt to please both the north and south. To please to north, he proposed that the country admit California as a free state and banned the slave trade in the nation’s capital. To account for the south, he stated that the federal government had no power to regulate slave trade, he implemented popular sovereignty for the Mexican Cession, and he introduced the Fugitive Slave Law. Despite Clay’s valiant efforts to form a compromise between the states, neither side was entirely pleased with the outcome. This was another event in which the outcome was not preventable. In a compromise, one side may gain something at the expense of another thing, such as California becoming a free state at the expense of the Fugitive Slave Law. This brought up feelings from each side that they were not truly equal in terms of gains and