Compromise of 1850

Once more, the Great Compromiser Henry Clay took it upon himself to help solve the sectional crisis the United States was experiencing in the first half of the eighteenth century. When California requested to enter the nation as a free state in 1849, Southerners cried foul at this potential disturbance of the careful balance between slave-owning and free states. The Compromise of 1850, as a series of five pieces of legislation, helped to keep the North and South at bay, delaying the onset of war.

In addition to allowing California into the country as a free state, Clay proposed establishing territorial governments in the Utah and New Mexico territories--territory gained from the Mexican cession--on the basis of popular sovereignty. Also, the Compromise settled the boundary dispute between Mexico and Texas. A newly-edited, harsher and more severe Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. While these concessions were made to the South, the Compromise prohibited the slave trade in Washington, DC as a concession to the North.

Most Democrats supported the bill, as did southern Whigs. It was opposed, though, by President Zachary Taylor; however, Taylor died and Millard Fillmore, his successor, was in favor of the Compromise. The general success of the Compromise and the near-consensus along party lines eased sectional tensions in the United States for a time.




Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, and R. Hal Williams. America Past and Present. Revised Sixth Edition, AP* Edition . Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 2003. 395-97. Print.
"Our Documents - Compromise of 1850 (1850)." Our Documents - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct 2010. < http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=27 >

Compromise of 1850 and Popular Sovereignty Map. Web. 16 Oct 2010. < http://thomaslegion.net/thecompromiseof1850andpopularsovereigntymap.html >.