Civil War: Compromise Of 1850-Meaning

In 1861, a Civil War broke out in the United States when the South declared their independence from the Union. There is a great amount of reasons that people can argue how the Civil War was started. However, what most people don’t understand, is that most of the events leading up to the Civil War were related to slavery. Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict, which led to a very vicious feud.

Many causes led to the Civil War. This all happened around the mid 1800s. It was a conflict between the Northern and Southern states. Both sides had their own view on slavery, and their separate views caused contentions between the two. Both had different views on whether to expand or stop slavery growth to the West, or have slavery at all.

The 1850s were a time of attempted compromise when compromise was no longer possible. The Union was becoming divided through many events in the time leading into the Civil War. The North and South had too many hostilities to account for. Socially, the North and the South could not stand what the other would do or say with anything. Politically, the government was completely divided and undecided. And economically, the South began to prosper as the North began to struggle. Thus, during the 1850s, socially, politically, and economically there was not any compromise that could fix the problems beginning to occur.

At the end of the Mexican War, lands were ceded to the Union in the West. People from the North and the South were debating over whether or not these lands should have slavery. The solution was pushed by Clay, Webster, and Douglas from the North that would give the new lands the choice to be slave or free depending on a vote. During the mid-1800's, the North was industrializing and populating at a much higher rate than the South which was becoming dependent on the cotton industry. The Compromise of 1850 created more problems than it solved in regards to the enforcement of slave laws, lands in the West, and popular sovereignty.

The Compromise of 1850 was a desperate attempt to keep the southern states from seceding from the United States of America. While the goal was to keep the south from seceding, the new laws actually created more tension than it solved. Since the division in America over slave ownership had been holding a delicate balance with the states on both sides, the North and the South. When California petitioned to join the Union in 1849 as a free state, that delicate balance tipped and the conflict once again erupted. The Compromise consisted of 5 laws, admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each is determined by popular sovereignty, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former’s favor, ending the slave trade in Washington D.C. and making it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves (History).

After working tirelessly to set forth his Compromise, Henry Clay’s Compromise finally became a law in 1850. Initially, the Compromise of 1850 slit up guidelines about slavery for the North and South. In the North, CA was a free state, the slave trade was prohibited in Wash. DC, and unrelated to slavery, TX lost their boundary conflict with NM. In the South, slaveholding was permitted in Wash. DC, and the creation of the Fugitive slave act. The fugitive slave act gave federal support to slave catchers. Although the N and S both benefitted from the compromise, the North technically gained more out of it. The Compromise of 1850 was significant because it gave the South the Fugitive slave law, and gave the North a new free state, CA—everybody wins!

A little after the Manifest Destiny, the U.S. faced a series of troubles of sectional balances over whether or not the land acquired should be free or slavery states. The Compromise of 1850, proposed by Senator Henry Clay, included measures that dealt with the land acquired specifically from the Mexican War.

After the Missouri Compromise was made, more conflict arose. New territories were beginning to fight over the issue of slavery. These territories included Texas, New Mexico, and California. After James Polk became president he annexed Texas, and it became a state. This was a cause of the Civil War because it caused was the war with Mexico, which as a result led to the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 made Northerners help catch runaway slaves. The South loved it, but the North hated it. Once again the North and South were spreading apart.

Slavery was one of the biggest controversies in the United States for many years and many amendments and compromises were made because of it. It began with 3/5ths compromise of 1776 which declared all slaves were equivalent to 3/5th of a man. Then it progressed to the Compromise of 1850, which included 5 bills and admitted California to the United States as a free state, demonstrating how hard it was to please both sides. Next came the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, otherwise known as Bleeding Kansas, a mini civil war regarding whether Kansas would be a free or slave state. These events along with many others began to create a large divide between north and south, ultimately leading to the biggest event of all, the Civil War which started in 1861.

Civil War DBQ The Civil War started because of the states wanted more independence than the federal government was willing to give them. The states wanted to be able to do whatever they wanted to do, even if it went against what the federal government was telling them to do. For example the Confederate states wanted to be able to choose for themselves whether slavery was abolished or not in their state. But on the Union side the federal government wanted to give the states some independence, but they wanted more say and control over the states.

How did the annexation of Texas and the Mexican American War impact the issue of slavery? How did this impact sectional unity? Be sure to explain your answer

During the 1850’s in American history, sectionalism between the North and the South was a major factor due to the massive problem of slavery in the territories. Henry clay was one of the authors of The Compromise. The purpose of The Compromise of 1850 was to save the Union and postpone the Civil War for at least 10 years. It gained support and success for the Union.

The United States Civil War was predominantly fought over slavery. The nation was split; the anti-slavery North and the pro-slavery South. While the events of the 1850’s widened this gap, and started the Civil War; however, the origins of the war go back farther than this. The Civil War was directly tied to slavery, thus the fact that the constitution did not outlaw slavery would lead to the eventual divide of the country. While the events of the 1850's certainly sped up the outbreak of the war, it was inevitable a civil war would break out eventually.

The Civil War was a time of fighting within the United States brought on by many events including the Missouri Compromise, abolition movement, presidential election of 1860, secession of Southern states, and other occurrences. Most Southern states seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The big divide stemmed from the differing positions on slavery. The North had been gradually abolishing slavery and did not depend on such free labor in the way the South did. The agricultural dependant economy of the South relied on African American labor. Therefore, each side feared the stance the government would take on the issue of slavery and how that would affect the economy and politics of the nation. From 1861 to 1865, the

     The Civil War, often called the War for Southern Independence began on April 12, 1861. The main cause of the war was slavery. The southern states depended on slaves to help grow crops which were the main source of income for the south. Slavery was illegal in all of the northern states but most people actually were neutral about it. The main conflict was if slavery should be permitted in the newly developing western territories.