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.
The Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 were attempts to bring the nation together but ended up pulling it apart. The Missouri Compromise's goal was to end the feud on the border for free and slave states, end the feud on Missouri becoming a free or slave state. The solution for the border was to have an imaginary line at 36 degrees, 30' minutes anything above the line, with an acception of Missouri, would be free and anything below the line would be slave. The solution to Missouri becoming free or slave was Maine would become a free state and Missouri would become a slave state to keep the number of slave states and the number of free states equal. In time the Missouri Compromise would tear the nation apart despite its intentions.
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
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.
This concept inspired James K Polk, the expansionists president from 1845 to 1849, to fight against Mexico for the Republic of Texas and other land beyond that. The Texas Revolution ended in 1836 and Texas joined the U.S. in 1845, which was called the Texas Annexation. The fight for the land beyond Texas was the Mexican American war, This war
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.
Polk at this time looking at mexico with no opposition turn to congress to declare war. congress did not want to because of the reasons Polk wanted war were invalid, but congress did say if they shot at us we would have no choice than to go to war with mexico. So frustrated Polk now forced a showdown, and on Jan. 1846, he ordered men under Zachary Taylor to march from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande, provocatively near Mexican troops. As events would have it, on April 1846, news of Mexican troops crossing the Rio Grande and killing of wounding 16 Americans came to Washington, and Polk pushed for a declaration of war. so with the Push by Polk, Congress declared war, and so began the Mexican-American War which mexico was trapped in fighting.
In the years on up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups across the country. The horrible compromise that sacrificed the rights of African Americans in favor of a more stronger union in the states exploded once more in 1819 when Missouri requested to join the United States as a slave state. In 1819, the nation had eleven free and eleven slave states creating a balance in the U.S. senate. Missouri's entrance threatened to throw this parity in favor of slave’s strong feelings toward it. The debate in Congress over the admission of Missouri was unusally and extraordinary bitter after Congressman James Tallmadge from New York put forward an idea that slavery be banned in the new state.
As further compromises were needed to stabilize fragile relations, the expansion of territories revealed the gaping differences in American beliefs. To settle the complaints from southerners, Congress adopted the Compromise of 1850 to deal with both slavery and the expanding territories. Under this deal, California entered the United States as a free state and Washington D.C. abolished its slave trade. Also, other territories to the west could independently decide whether to ban or allow slavery. However, the law also caused controversy by allowing slave owners to capture fugitive slaves in the North.
Congressman Abraham Lincoln did not support the war. He did not want there to be another slave state. General Zachary Taylor on the other hand was the General who led the U.S into the disputed area. He also led the U.S troops across the Rio Grande in Mexico. He would later become President of the United States of America.
Although Polk’s war was successful, he lost public support after nearly two bloody and costly years of nothing but fighting. Additionally, the controversial war was reignited the slavery extension debate that would ultimately result in the American Civil War in the 1860s. Polk did not seek re-elections after his first term, and died at age 53 in June 1849, three months after leaving office. Zachary Taylor, in the other hand who became a national hero during the Mexican-American War, ran for president in the 1848 election and won. However, one year and four months after his initiation, Zachary Taylor had become ill and died.
The compromise of 1850 was a series of resolutions to the issue of slavery. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. Also, California entered the Union as a free state and a territorial government was created in Utah. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.
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.
Ten years prior to Lincoln’s inauguration California stand on slavery was being determined. Tennessee delegates met in Nashville to determine what would happen if California became a free state, and the topic of secession was on the table. However, after the Compromise of 1850, which implemented the Fugitive Slave Act, that required all runaway slaves be returned to their masters even if they are in a free state, like California, Tennessee and the other southern states threatening to secede from the Union were slated. Then ten years later when the democrat Abraham Lincoln was elected president it pushed many states over the edge and state began to secede. However, Tennessee’s divided regions kept it from seceding in the beginning of this civil
