Compromise of 1850
Earlier you read about the Missouri Compromise and the
Wilmot Proviso. Keep them in mind as you read here
What is a compromise?
A compromise is a resolution of a problem in which each side
gives up demands or makes concession. Earlier you read about
the Missouri Compromise. What conflict did it resolve? It kept the
number of slave and free states equal by admitting Maine as free
and Missouri as slave and it provided for a policy with respect to
slavery in the Louisiana Territory. Other than in Missouri, the
Compromise prohibited slavery north of 36°30' N latitude in the
land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Look at the 1850 map.
Notice how the "Missouri Compromise Line" ends at the border to
Mexican Territory. In 1850 the United States controls the 36°30' N
latitude to the Pacific Ocean. Will the United States allow slavery
in its new territory?
Slavery's Expansion
Look again at this map and watch for the 36°30' N latitude
Missouri Compromise line as well as the proportion of free and
slave states up to the Civil War, which begins in 1861.
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This map was created by User: Kenmayer and is licensed under Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC-BY 3.0)
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Slave_Free_1789-1861.gif].
Here's a chart that compares the Missouri Compromise with
the Compromise of 1850.
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Wilmot Proviso
During the Mexican-American War in 1846, David Wilmot, a
Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, proposed in an
amendment to a military appropriations bill that slavery be banned
in all the territories acquired from Mexico. Wilmot's amendment
failed, but in the debate over it southerners in both the Whig and
Democratic parties argued against it and northerners of both
parties argued for it. This sectional (North versus South) rather
than party division signaled the end of the Second American
Party System.
Slavery and Political Parties
Slavery began to break down the Second American Party
System in 1844 when the Liberty Party emerged to challenge
slavery in a national political campaign. The Liberty Party
opposed the admission of any slave state to the Union, advocated
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the end to slavery in Washington, D.C., the abolition of the
interstate slave trade, and denying political office to any
slaveholders. The Liberty Party attracted 44,000 northern votes in
1844 and thus denied the presidency to the architect of the
Missouri Compromise Henry Clay, the Whig Party's candidate.
[The election between the Democrat James K. Polk and the Whig
Henry Clay was very close as less than 40,000 votes separated
the two.]
The Liberty Party's stance on slavery was too extreme for most
northerners and so another party appeared, the Free Soil
Party. Free Soilers did not approve of slavery but were willing to
allow it to continue where it already existed unlike the Liberty
Party abolitionists. What they adamantly opposed was slavery's
extension into new and unorganized territories (like those just
acquired from Mexico). They opposed the Missouri Compromise
because extension of its 36°30' line would have allowed slavery in
much of present-day Arizona, New Mexico, and the southern half
of California. By 1854 this "free soil" philosophy was embraced by
another third party, the Republican Party.The election of a
Republican, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860 would lead directly to the
secession of southern states and the start of the Civil War.
Chart comparing political parties when questions about the
expansion of slavery came to dominate the national political
scene from the mid-1840s until Lincoln's election in 1860..
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Popular Sovereignty
What is sovereignty? It means independence. A sovereign state is
a self-governing one. What is popular sovereignty? In 1848 the
Democratic nominee for president Lewis Cass proposed it as a
way to resolve the slavery question. Under popular sovereignty,
the citizens of a territory would vote on whether to allow slavery.
Cass never made clear when those citizens would vote: would
they vote as a territory or when they applied for statehood? In the
1848 election, the Free Soil Party opposed popular sovereignty
while Cass the Democrat and war hero Zachary Taylor the Whig
avoided making a clear statement about slavery in the newly
acquired Mexican Cession. The Free Soil Party attracted 10
percent of the vote, another strong showing for a party based on
limiting slavery. Taylor won the election but died in office.
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Compromise of 1850
The candidates may have avoided the issue of slavery in the new
territories in 1848, but by 1850 the nation had to face it. The
California Gold Rush resulted in thousands racing there to make
their fortunes. California's population exploded and the territory
applied for statehood. Utah, home to thousands of Mormon
pioneers, also applied for statehood. Would they enter the Union
as slave or free?
The Compromise of 1850 resolved the issue of California's status:
it entered the Union as a free state. The Mormon practice of
polygamy delayed Utah's statehood until the 1890s after the
Church ended the practice. The Compromise addressed
California's status and that of the other territories as well as other
issues concerning slavery in a series of bills. Here's a summary.
1.
California admitted as free state.
2.
Slavery in the rest of Mexican Cession not specified. The
Compromise bill said only that New Mexico and Utah
would have no "restriction or condition on the subject of
slavery."
3.
Texas's boundaries resolved.
4.
Slave trade in the District of Columbia was abolished.
[Remember that the Liberty Party wanted slavery itself
abolished in the District.]
5.
Stronger fugitive slave law enacted. [Remember that the
Constitution in Art. IV, Sec. 2, Para. 3 required the
return of runaway slaves.]
Effects of the Compromise
People rejoiced in the streets of Washington, D.C., when the
Compromise passed. What had the Compromise achieved? Did
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the Compromise resolve the slavery question in the rest of the
Mexican Cession (e.g., in New Mexico)? The Compromise said
nothing about slavery in New Mexico and Utah. To northerners,
the Compromise meant that a territorial legislature could exclude
slavery. Southerners assumed that slavery could not be excluded
at least until statehood.
Though some history texts assert that popular sovereignty would
decide slave or free when the territories applied for statehood, in
reality the meaning of the Compromise was left to the courts. If
the territorial legislatures had passed an antislavery measure then
the courts would have had to determine its constitutionality. You
read about the Dred Scott Supreme Court case that ruled that
territories had no authority to issue such measures.
What was the Compromise of 1850's most significant effect?
It delayed the Civil War for 10 years. In those 10 years, the North
grew in strength as immigration increased its population and
industrialization increased its wealth and production capacity.
Chart showing legislation and decisions about slavery. The
chart's title repeats the words of New York Senator William
Seward who in 1858 warned that the sectional conflict over
slavery represented an "irrepressible conflict."
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©Susan Vetter 2011
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