Brokering The Compromise of 1850

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) Troubled Times: the Tumultuous 1850s Brokering The Compromise of 1850 (Key Notes and Summary) Key Notes - After the Mexican Cession, Congress struggled with concerns such as runaway slave laws, territorial conflicts in the West, and the slave trade in the District of Columbia in 1850. - The finding of gold in California caused a wave of immigration, making statehood a crucial issue. - Political parties in the North and South have varying views toward slavery; abolitionists were drawn to the Free-Soil Party. - President Taylor advocated for the admittance of California and New Mexico as free states and placed a high priority on preserving the Union. - A number of resolutions addressing various concerns relating to slavery were introduced by Senator Henry Clay. - Senator John C. Calhoun suggested changing the constitution to allow for two terms as president and pushed for stringent government laws to defend slavery. - National unity was highlighted by Senator Daniel Webster in his "Seventh of March" speech. William H. Seward projected, on the basis of moral reasons, that slavery would eventually be abolished. - The contentious congressional debates frequently became violent. - The Fugitive Slave Act, California's admittance as a free state, and popular sovereignty in territories were among the five important components that made up the Compromise of 1850, which was arranged by Senator Stephen Douglas. - Although sectional problems were not resolved by the agreement, tensions were momentarily reduced; as a result, there was ongoing unrest in both the North and the South. Summary Congress struggled with the complicated fallout from the Mexican Cession in 1850, which was made worse by divisive topics including the growth of slavery, California's status, and the distribution of power between slave and free states. The Compromise of 1850 attempted to solve these issues through a number of legislative initiatives; it was led by individuals such as Henry Clay and ultimately enacted under the leadership of Stephen Douglas following Clay's retirement. These included the adoption of popular sovereignty in the territories, the elimination of the slave trade in Washington, D.C., the settlement of the Texas-New Mexico boundary issue, and the admittance of California as a free state. Though some viewed the agreement as a short-term fix to keep the Union intact, it simply covered up the severe sectional divides that existed between the North and South; tensions remained high and some Southerners' feelings of secession persisted. Brokering The Compromise of 1850 Notes Congress was preoccupied in 1850 with the question of what to do with the western territory that the Mexican Cession had brought to the republic. Additional contentious issues that had been building over time made the situation much more difficult. The two main concerns among them were the runaway slave laws, which southerners desired to tighten, and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, which opponents of slavery intended to abolish. The boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico persisted due to the desire of many Texans to expand their state, and the unresolved problem of California. The Mexican Cession's gem was California, which saw an influx of thousands of emigrants once gold was discovered there. However, most estimations place it as a free state because slavery had not taken hold in California and the previous Mexican ban on slavery was still in effect. The distribution of land before to the 1850 compromise is seen on the map (Figure 14.3) below. The issues brought on by the Mexican Cession were not significantly resolved by the 1848 presidential election. Both the Democrats and the Whigs made every effort to keep the topic of slavery out of the public eye. Lewis Cass of Michigan, a proponent of popular sovereignty—letting the people in the territories determine whether or not to allow slavery based on majority rule—was nominated by the Democrats. The Whigs put forth General Zachary Taylor, a Louisiana slave owner who rose to national prominence during the Mexican-American War as a military hero. Taylor did not take a personal stance on any topic and stayed mute during the campaign. The candidate put up by the young Free-Soil Party was former president Martin Van Buren. Abolitionists such as former Liberty Party members, northern Whigs who opposed Taylor for being a slaveholder, and northern Democrats who backed the Wilmot Proviso were drawn to the Free-Soil Party. In the North and South, the Democratic and Whig parties conducted distinct campaigns. While Democrats and Whigs in the South pledged to uphold slavery in the territories, all three parties in the North sought to win over votes by promising to maintain the territories free of slavery. Voters in the South seemed to see slave owner Taylor as the obvious choice. By stealing votes from Democrats and Whigs in the North, the Free-Soil Party aided in securing Taylor's victory in 1848. As president, Taylor prioritized maintaining the Union over all other considerations and worked to diffuse the sectional conflict as much as possible. Despite having been born in Virginia before moving to Kentucky and having more than a hundred slaves by the late 1840s, Taylor did not advocate for the spread of slavery into the Mexican Cession. But the California Gold Rush turned California's statehood into a pressing matter that required prompt action. President Taylor called on Congress to admit California and New Mexico as free states in 1849 after Californians adopted a state constitution outlawing slavery. This move infuriated southern defenders of slavery who claimed that their property could be brought wherever they pleased. Taylor suggested that the Wilmot Proviso be extended to the whole Mexican Cession because he thought slavery could not thrive there due to the climate's inability to support plantation-style farming. Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky, a seasoned combatant in Congress, presented a number of resolutions in Congress that addressed a wide range of topics pertaining to slavery and its spread. In his resolutions, Clay demanded that the state of Texas pay its outstanding debts from the days of the Lone Star Republic, that the slave trade (but not slavery itself) end in the nation's capital, that the slave trade (but not slavery itself) be discontinued, and that the federal fugitive slave law be strengthened. He also rejected the Wilmot Proviso and the position of the Free-Soil Party and called for the admission of California as a free state and a boundary between New Mexico and Texas that did not expand Texas. Clay put forth these ideas as an omnibus measure, which would be put to a vote as a whole. An intense and passionate discussion that lasted for eight months was sparked by Clay's recommendations. The elderly and terminally sick John C. Calhoun, the elder statesman on the pro-slavery side, became enraged by the resolution demanding California's admittance as a free state. Too ill to speak, Calhoun asked his friend, senator James Mason of Virginia, to provide his evaluation of Clay's resolutions and the status of sectional conflict at the time. According to Calhoun, the North was solely to blame for the impasse as it restricted the areas where slavery might spread, obstructing the growth of the South and the United States. Calhoun demanded a strict federal legislation to guarantee that fugitives from slavery were sent back to their captors. In an apparent attempt to dissolve the union, he also suggested amending the constitution to establish a dual president, one for the North and one for the South. Calhoun's line of reasoning, which furthered the division between the states, depicted a beleaguered South against persistent northern assault. Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts answered Calhoun in his "Seventh of March" address a few days after Mason gave Calhoun's speech. In his famous statement, "not as a Massachusetts man, not as a Northern man, but as an American," Webster advocated for national unity, urging the South to put an end to disunion threats and the North to cease provoking the South by continually bringing up the Wilmot Proviso. Similar to Calhoun, Webster advocated for the creation of a new federal statute to guarantee the repatriation of fugitive slaves. Due to his attempts at compromise, Webster received harsh criticism from abolitionists who saw him as a traitor. William H. Seward, a Whig senator and presidential candidate, predicted that slavery would eventually be abolished in the United States because it was irreconcilable with the Declaration of Independence's claim that "all men are created equal." Seward established his image as an abolitionist in the Senate with his speech, which cited a moral code that was superior to the Constitution. The statements spoken in Congress were printed in the country's newspapers, and the general people eagerly watched the discussions to find out how the pressing problems of the day— particularly the possible expansion of slavery—would be settled. The public's attention was heightened by colorful accounts of squabbling in Congress. Arguments would frequently turn into fistfights or worse, in fact. During the discussion, one of the most remarkable incidents happened in April 1850. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, a Democrat, became enraged with Mississippi Democratic senator Henry S. Foote, who at the time was an enslaver, during the argument. The senator from Mississippi pulled out a revolver when it seemed like the bulky Benton was about to attack Foote. Henry Clay and President Taylor could not stand one another; their resolutions had sparked the Senate's rhetorical pyrotechnics. For his part, Taylor was enraged with Clay and didn't agree with his resolutions, since Clay had long held aspirations of becoming president. The administration stagnated in its efforts to address the other slavery- related concerns as well as the disposition of the Mexican Cession because neither party was prepared to give ground. President Taylor's severe illness on July 4, 1850, which was apparently caused by consuming an excessive amount of fruit and milk, further added to the drama. Vice President Millard Fillmore took over as president after his death five days later. In contrast to his predecessor, who many thought would be against a compromise, Fillmore collaborated with Congress to find a way out of the 1850 issue. Ultimately, senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois succeeded in getting five different proposals passed by Congress, which together made up the Compromise of 1850, after Clay resigned as the head of the compromise movement in disgust. Initially, the Fugitive Slave Act, which was supported by the South, was established by Congress and gave government funds, or "bounties," to anyone who caught slaves. Second, Congress approved California's admission as a free state in order to counterbalance this concession to the South. This action delighted abolitionists and proponents of antislavery in the North. Third, Congress reached a resolution to the contentious border dispute between Texas and New Mexico by granting New Mexico preference and prohibiting an expansion of Texas, another result that pleased the North. The federal government reimbursed Texas for the debts it had accrued during its independence. Fourth, despite the fact that slavery persisted in the nation's capital, opponents of slavery applauded Congress's decision to outlaw the slave trade in Washington, DC. Finally, Congress deferred to the concept of popular sovereignty rather than taking a firm stand on the contentious question of whether slavery would spread into the territories. Residents of the areas were then left to determine whether or not to permit slavery. The logic of American democracy was followed by popular sovereignty, wherein the laws of each region were decided by the majority in that territory. However, because voting on the legislation were split strictly along regional lines, the compromise revealed the sectional division even more. The majority of Americans chose to think that the agreement mediated in 1850 had preserved the Union, and they sighed with satisfaction. But rather than healing the rift between the North and the South, the agreement just served as a ceasefire in an otherwise raging sectional war. After the agreement, Southerners convened many conventions to deliberate strategies for safeguarding their region, since tensions in the country persisted to be extraordinarily elevated. Extremists who advocated for secession were in the minority at these meetings because most Southerners pledged to remain in the Union, but only provided that slavery stayed in the states where it already existed and that no steps were taken to prevent its spread into new areas where the people desired it, thus upholding the principle of popular sovereignty.