During the mid-1830’s the slavery industry was rising. Between the years of 1820 and 1848 there were four new slaveholding states and and four new free states that were being admitted to the Union.
The Missouri Compromise didn’t give a huge area to be gained from Mexico in 1848. People who wanted to end slavery and stop it from from spreading to other states present more issues to stop slavery, this would give the South more power. David Wilmot believed that the United States should end slavery for the better. Senator Lewis from Michigan suggested a solution that he thought the people would like to adopt. He announced that his solution is based on letting people decide whether they want their state to be a slave state or an free state. When the slave states found out California was being admitted as a free state, they got scared that slavery might be coming to an end because there was one more free state than slave state. They were even more afraid that when the free states attacked they would have an advantage because they had more states. Now, free states felt more in power, so they wanted slave trade to be vanished in Washington D.C. As a return southerners now wanted northerners to help them catch runaway slaves that were caught escaping.
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The northerners were able to make California a free state and also end slave trade in the capital. The southerners were able to pass the Fugitive Slave Act and they also outlawed the slave trade in Washington D.C. The north was not pleased with the new Fugitive Slave Act. Both the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Law were a debatable
Since the Wilmot Proviso was not a law but merely just a proposal the Compromise of 1850 brought clarity to the Americans. When the Compromise of 1850 was established this gave American’s something concrete to go by. They were given five new laws. American’s now knew what would be allowed in the new territories and how they would be divided. It also allowed the states people to decide whether or not slavery would be legal. There was also a fugitive slave act passed that gave slave capturers government funded incentive. These laws were viewed as a peace deal because it made both sides happy. Although the Compromises was viewed as a resolution, it was short-lived. The fugitive slave act created problems among the anti-slavery community. It made
In early 1850, the legendary statesman and orator, Daniel Webster, convened with Henry Clay of Kentucky to accumulate approval for Clay’s plan to conserve the Union from itself. This Compromise, appropriately recognized as the Compromise of 1850, guaranteed to address five principal issues at the time. The foremost, was the recognition of California as a free state. At the time, California had not yet amalgamated with the United States, leaving its situation questionable. Next, was the acknowledgement of both New Mexico and Ohio as unresolved states, to refrain from biasing the amount of slave and free states and subsequently, annulling the Wilmot Proviso. As expected, the two Northern politicians wished to expel slave exchange from the prestigious United States capital of the District of Columbia. However, even as Northern men, the Compromise included one last circumstance; a harsher enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, guaranteeing runaway slaves in the North an unfortunate return to slavery, so as to gain the approval of slave owners and abolitionists
This stayed true, until the forming of California came into discussion. California demanded to keep its long borders, due to the oil, which was blocked by the Sierra Nevada, of the Rocky Mountains (OI). Congress would allow California to keep its unusual shape, but the Missouri Compromise’s lateral line went through the middle of California and gave Henry Clay an idea of a new compromise (OI). The Compromise of 1850 was relief for the nation (Doc. 3). Its provisions included Utah and New Mexico territories being decided if they were free or slave states by popular sovereignty (Doc. 3). California would enter the Union as a free state, border disputes between New Mexico and Texas was settled and slave trade, but not slavery, was banned in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. (Doc. 3). One other decree was enacting the Fugitive Slave Law, which meant that escaped slaves in the North would be returned to their owner, and even Northerners were required to help find escapees (Doc. 3). If people were found to have been harboring slaves, they were faced with either a $1,000 fine or 6 months in prison
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.
To resolve the sectional strife throughout America, Henry Clay offered a set of resolutions, which collectively was known as the 'omnibus' bill, and was designed to gratify both pro-slave and anti-slave groups. This compromise said that California was to be admitted into the union as a free state; that New Mexico and Utah were to be organised into territories, allowing popular sovereignty; and as a sop to win over both sides, the Fugitive Slave Act which already existed was to be made more stringent, and slave-trading but not slavery was to end in the District of Columbia. Clay made the mistake of trying to past all five bills at once, this consequently caused in every call for compromise, some Northerners or Southerners to rise and in A. Farmer, a historians words 'Inflame passions'. In July 1850 Clay's 'omnibus' bill was defeated, due to countless Northern senators voting against it, on account of the benefits it brought for the opposition. It was only in September of the same year, when Senator Douglas of Illinois replaced Clay as the leader of the negotiation, and having separated out the conciliation into a five-part compromise was able to pass it.
One of the main topics of concern for many decades was when new territories want to enter the union, will they be free or slave states? Henry Clay, one of the great compromisers, was able to work all sorts of different compromises on several issues throughout the years. One of his most famous compromises was the Missouri compromise. This allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, and every new state following would be free North of the Mason-Dixon line. This would try to stop the expansion of slavery, and for a short while, it did. During this time period, most Americans believed in manifest destiny, so they expanded westward. As many Southern’s moved west, they brought with them their slaves. Furthermore, they moved to places where slavery made economic sense, for example
Another rising issue facing congress, California -- a territory that had grown tremendously with the gold rush of 1849, had recently petitioned Congress to enter the Union as a free state. Should this be allowed? Ever since the Missouri Compromise, the balance between slave states and free states had been maintained; any proposal that threatened this balance would almost certainly not win approval.
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!
The North and the South had many moral and social feelings of disagreement towards slavery that made compromise
One key difference between the North and South was the North’s abundance of cheap labor. Between 1845 and 1855 around 3 million people immigrated to the US (304). This new influx of people brought large quantities of low waged factory, mine and construction workers to the Northern states just in time to aid in the industrial revolution. Contrary to the North, southern states still relied heavily on slave labor as their economy was dependent on cash crops. Furthermore, slavery was not only an economic institution but now a way of life for Southerners. Therefore, slavery was more widely accepted and condoned as it was both a way of life and an economic institution. However, Northerners did not experience this way of life or rely on slave labor. Due to this, Northerners we more eager to expel slavery. Northerners’ discontentment with slavery created negative responses to the Compromise of 1850 as opposed to the Southerners. One of the five federal laws in the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, disabled Northerners’ to remain impartial to the slavery conflict (315). The Compromise strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, forcing Northerners to return
In the beginning of the 19th century, slavery started to be debated and whether we should make it illegal. South of the nation absolutely despised the idea and wanted nothing to do with it. This soared a major dispute between the North and the South. One region wanted something and one wanted another. At a point, it was total chaos. It was then decided that Henry Clay needed to do something about it and of course proposed the Compromise of 1850.
The Compromise of 1820 changed a lot of things about new states entering the Union. With westward movement being such a big deal during this time frame, it created a few complications. Starting out, in theory, it was a good idea. However, All the new states would be divided into 2 factions based on their beliefs on slavery. Where you lived determined what your view on slaves and how you felt about slavery.
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.
During the time around 1850, tensions were rising on the issue of slavery between the North and the South. New states were being admitted to the United States, but the decisions to make them a free state or a slave state were what really mattered. As an example, California was admitted to the Union as a free state, and this angered the south very much because slavery was a very important factor to the South's economy. The Compromise of 1850 was developed to help soothe the tensions on each side. This Compromise had several provisions: California was admitted to the Union as a free state; the territories of New Mexico and Utah were created without restrictions of slavery; the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C.; Congress passed a stricter fugitive slave law. This compromise showed just how important slavery was to each side, and it gives us a good idea of why it could be important as one of their goals during the Civil War. With slavery in mind, it brought about ideas of succession to the South. Because the South was scared of Lincoln abolishing slavery, they thought it would be a wise decision to secede from the Union. In fact, Lincoln had no plans of abolishing slavery, but stated that it should not spread to the territories. The South basically misunderstood and decided to secede anyway. The reason slavery was so important to the South, and lead them to break apart from the Union was that it
Prior to the 1820’s, the people of the United States had been struggling to find a way to solve their sectional tensions brought on by slavery in the south. The south had always had an economy based on agriculture that could not strive without their uses of slavery. They did not plan on ending slavery anytime soon, especially since it was really all they had to support themselves. They were against establishing an industrial based economy like the north had began to do in the 1820-1830’s. The real cause of the sectional tensions between the North and the South during the 1820’s-1860’s was not slavery itself, but how it affected each society so differently, and it was very challenging to find a compromise to suit