Today’s Objective:
Conflict and Compromise
Missouri Compromise
By 1804, Northern states had abolished slavery. From that point politicians in Congress attempted to
keep a sectional balance between Free and Slave states. Even though the North had a majority in the House of
Representatives, votes between free and slave states in the Senate were equal. As long as the balance remained,
southern senators could block legislation that threatened their interest. In 1819, the first area of the Louisiana
Purchase to apply for statehood was Missouri. This worried the North because Missouri wanted to be a slave
state and that would upset the balance between free and slave states. Even though southerners support Missouri
as a state, they too were worried about the future status of territories applying for statehood in the area from the
Louisiana Purchase. Would they be slave or free?
After months of heated debate in Congress, “the
Great Compromiser,” Henry clay won support for three
bills that would provide a compromise: (1) Missouri
would be admitted as a slaveholding state. (2) Maine
would be admitted as a free state. (3) In the rest of the
Louisiana Territory the 36°30’ line would mark a
boundary – above which would be free, below which
would be slave. Congress agreed to the compromise and
in March 1820 President Monroe signed the bill. The
Missouri Compromise preserved the sectional balance
for over 30 years, providing the nation more time to
mature.
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Today’s Objective:
Conflict and Compromise
Annexation of Texas
By 1830, Americans (both white and black) outnumbered the Mexicans in Mexican owned Texas
by three to one. Conflict developed between the Texans and Mexico however because the Americans
living there did not follow Mexico’s laws, like no slavery and you must convert to Catholicism. By
1836, Texas had fought and won independence from Mexico and called themselves the Lone-Star
Republic. Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, applied to the US government for
his country to be annexed (to incorporate into the country). The political opposition from the North was
so strong, that for eight years the request for annexation was put off. In 1844, president John Tyler
worked to annex Texas, but the US Senate rejected his treaty of annexation.
In the Election of 1844, president John
Tyler (a southern Wig) loss his reelection to
James K. Polk (a Democrat). Polk ran on a
campaign for the acquisition of Texas and
Oregon. His win made annexation of Texas
seem inevitable. Eager to leave office in
triumph, Tyler pushed the annexation of Texas
through Congress. Instead of going back to the
Senate with a treaty for annexation he persuaded
the House of Representatives to pass a joint
resolution for annexation. The resolution only
required a simple majority in both houses and in
1845; Texas entered the US as a slave state.
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Today’s Objective:
Conflict and Compromise
Wilmot Proviso
Mexico had never officially recognized Texas as an independent country. When the US annexed
(incorporated into our country) Texas, it quickly led to problems with Mexico. The fight over the border
between Texas and Mexico led to the Mexican American War that lasted from 1846 to the beginning of
1848 and resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in which the US bought the Mexican Cession
(from Texas to the west coast) for $15 million. Some opposed the treaty however because slavery might
expand into the new territory.
The slavery issue overshadowed all others in the debate over the Mexican War. Southerners
hoped slavery could expand into the new lands and northerners feared that it might. The slavery issue
came to ahead even before the war had ended. A Pennsylvania Democrat named David Wilmot, offered
a solution known as the Wilmot Proviso. Since Mexico had forbid slavery, he suggested that any
territories that we acquired from Mexico should also
forbid slavery. While the House of Representatives
passed the Wilmot Proviso it was defeated in the
Senate. The Wilmot Proviso framed the national
debate over slavery for the next 15 years. It marked
an increasing division between free and slave states.
Eventually a new political party was formed that
adopted the Wilmot Proviso’s provision. The FreeSoil Party vowed to keep the new territories free with
its platform, “free soil, free speech, free labor, free
men.”
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Today’s Objective:
Conflict and Compromise
Compromise of 1850
In 1849 the Gold Rush in California brought about 100,000 settlers the West and created the
need for laws and order. In 1849, California drafted a constitution (which banned slavery) and applied
for statehood. Adding California as a free state would upset the balance between free and slave states in
Congress. The conflict before Congress was how to deal with California while protecting and
preserving the country. “The Great Compromiser,” Henry Clay once again proposed a compromise,
much like he did 30 years earlier with the Missouri Compromise.
The Compromise of 1850 had four main
parts: (1) admit California to the Union as a free
state, (2) allow for popular sovereignty (the people
get to vote on slavery) in the rest of the territory, (3)
ban the slave trade in DC (it did not ban slavery
though), and (4) adopt and enforce a strict Fugitive
Slave Law (required people in the North to return
escaped slaved to the South). Some parts of the
compromise were seen as a Northern victory like
California entering as a free state. Other parts were
seen as Southern victories like the strict Fugitive Slave law. The passage of the Compromise of 1850
once again bought the US time before it would have to deal with the issue of slavery once and for all.
Teach Sheet
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Why is it significant?
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