Why the compromises from 1846~1861 failed to prevent the Civil War

As tensions between the North and the South rose on the issues of slavery and states’ rights, numerous compromises were proposed to ease the conflict. Such compromises included the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and the Crittenden Compromise. These compromises had intentions of defining where slavery was permitted and clarifying states’ rights. They were only temporary fixes to a more pressing issue. Between the Missouri Compromise and the Crittenden Compromise, a series of events changed the political atmosphere of the United States and prevented any more compromises on the institution of slavery from being passed.

The United States was anything but united around 1850, as each state choose to ratify or abolish slavery under their laws. The entire country is split in half with the northern states claiming freedom while the southern states continue discriminating and enslaving minorities; western states were granted the opportunity of popular sovereignty, meaning they were entitled to decide where they would stand, politically on slavery, as a territory, together. With drama and dispute forming between the fundamentals of slavery, the south and north began to separate. The disagreement grew to the a shattering point where the south completely seceded from the united union. To save the union, the Compromise of 1850 was devised to resolve and satisfy both sides of the political argument; its outcomes seem to provide both positive and negative effects on the country.

Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, and the northern states all abolished slavery after 1776. In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderate opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. However, The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged too many northerners, which triggered violent uprisings from the North. These uprisings angered the Southern states greatly.

The compromise of 1850 was a quick effort to reduce the tension that lived between the north and the south. When vice president Fillmore saw the compromise he liked it enough to sign off on it and after it passed Congress over a seven month debate it was established

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.

During the 19th century the South and the North began to debate within each other as slavery was starting to become a national issue. The South was unified following the institution of slavery as it was vital to their economic success and the North was anti-slavery. The Civil War was inevitable becoming the climax to a growing tension between both the South and North in the act of failed Compromises and differences. The Missouri Compromise, The Act of 1850, and The Kansas-Nebraska Act hold large responsibility as causes for the Civil War considering none completely stopped the war and were merely postponed it.

1787- In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance was passed. It helped form new states and governed them. Then the confederate government had almost no control. The United States went into a depression, farmers had their land taken away, shays rebellion came, and slavery became a topic of debate. This led to

The constant debate over whether America was going to be free or slave led to the inevitability of a civil war. The political tension within the nation surrounding the issue of slavery was ongoing even after a series of compromises. The country was either going to be free or slave and it was evident that the only way to decide this was through a civil war. Through several cases and debates between the views of the North and South, an agreement was still unable to be obtained. The divisions within the nation were growing and no compromise was powerful enough to hold the nation together.

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

The North’s economy and lifestyle was more of industry and less farming, thus they didn’t feel the necessity for slaves was not present. However, for the South, their economy was primarily agriculture. Large plantations require great amounts of work, thus slaves were needed to work the farms. Certain acts were passed by Congress that further divided the two regions and increased tensions. In regards to the Kansas Nebraska Act, citizens rushed into the new states after the act was passed in order to secure their position on slavery over the state. This led to horrible violence, including abolitionist John Brown’s Raid. Brown had led a group of men and attempted to capture an arsenal so that he could supply slaves with weapons and continue on to a large scale revolt. However, he was caught and executed. To the Northerners, he was seen as a martyr, but to the South, they believed the correct action had been executed. (Doc I) Slavery continued to be practiced in the Northern States that had already banned slavery due to the Dred Scott Decision. The ruling for this case was that blacks were inferior to whites and are considered property, which the government had no control over. The decision outraged the Northerners, but delighted the

Initially, Lincoln refused to enforce the spread of slavery throughout the country. This infuriated the South, causing tensions to rise between the two countries of which was already prevalent before. President Lincoln was willing to terminate the dispersion of slavery and create a code of laws (Document 3). This angered the Southern territory as Lincoln had obtained an extensive amount of power. The South did not want Lincoln to have power over their decisions in regard to slavery and the abolition of it. Likewise, the Missouri Compromise was yet another example of a temporary solution to slavery. Henry Clay proposed this idea as well as the Compromise of 1850 in attempt to make relations better between the Union and Confederacy. In addition to these previous acts there was also the Kansas-Nebraska Act of which had relevance to slave and free territories. There was also the Fugitive SLave Act which was discussed and debated on runaway slaves and their returnment to their rightful owners. All of these acts had to do with popular sovereignty and the revision of its discrepancies. The four major causes that had the potential to split the nation included universal suffrage, abolition of slavery, the admission of California, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise (Document 5). These factors equally display the remaining issue in terms

“American claim to new territory is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self-government entrusted to us”. (Brinkly, American History 1, 2012) (Quote of

During the 1830’s and 1840’s, tensions over the question between whether the government should be larger, or whether states should have the power? The book states that the federalists feared too much democracy, however the republicans feared a reversion of monarchy. Within this argument arose the first U.S party system

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

In Lincolns second inaugural he coined a famous phrase saying "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other." (Perret 48)Other problems would arise concerning slavery such as which states would be admitted as free or slave states. Several compromises were made in order to avoid tensions rising such as the “Missouri Compromise”. Yet again we see later on by the repeal of this act by the “Kansas Nebraska” act that things remain unstable. Tensions would rise again when we acquired the new territories from Mexico. For several years it caused tensions with the South wanting slavery and the North opposed to it. Eventually the Compromise of 1850 would quell the tensions.