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To What Extent Was The Compromise Of 1850 A Catalyst For War

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Compromise of 1850: A Catalyst for War. Amanda Kreft Columbia Southern University HIS 1301, American History I Dr. Scott Duryea 5/14/24. Introduction The American Civil War of 1860 led to the death of an estimated 7 million Americans (Hacker, 2014). There are several events that occurred prior to the start of the war. Did one of these events by itself cause the war to start, or was it an accumulation of multiple events happening? This paper will look at one of these events specifically, the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850, was a series of legislative measures, passed by the United States Congress in an attempt to address the issue of slavery and maintain the balance between free and slave states. The compromise included …show more content…

The compromise was designed to maintain the balance of power between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in the country, and it was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Civil War. The compromise was proposed by Senator Henry Clay, who was a Republican from Kentucky, and supported by Senators Daniel Webster and John Calhoun, who were both Democrats. There were five key aspects included in the compromise, the first being the Fugitive Slave Act, the second being the admission of California as a free state, the third being the Texas Boundary Act, the fourth being the establishment of New Mexico and Utah Territories, and the fifth being the Washington D.C. slave trade (P. Scott Corbett, 2014). The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, part of the Compromise of 1850, was a controversial law that required authorities in free states to aid in the capture and return of runaway slaves to their owners in the South. The Act was seen as a compromise between the North and South to help maintain the delicate balance between free and slave states. One key aspect of the Fugitive Slave Act was the use of deck-stacking, a concept where the deck is metaphorically stacked against one party in order to ensure a specific outcome. In this case, the Act heavily favored slave owners by making it easier for them to recover their escaped slaves. For example, the Act allowed slave owners to simply provide an affidavit to a federal commissioner asserting that a person was their escaped slave, without needing any corroborating evidence or witness testimony. This made it extremely difficult for alleged fugitive slaves to challenge their capture and ultimate return to enslavement. Another important aspect of the Act was the use of credible commitment, a concept in game theory that

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