The Compromise of 1850
The expansion of slavery was the issue that was splitting the young nation apart. The first four score and seven years of American History could easily be divided into chapters labeled "compromise" - a series of band aids that temporarily healed the wounds of sectionalism.
But with every inevitable expansion westward, the existing compromise disintegrated and a new band aid was needed. In 1850, the last great Compromise was created to hold the nation together and ironically drove home the final wedge of sectionalism. |
* * * Discussion Questions * * *
1. In what ways did the Compromise of 1850 continue the legacy of the Missouri Compromise?
2. In what ways did the Compromise of 1850 reverse the Missouri Compromise?
3. How did the Compromise of 1850 set the stage for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision?
2. In what ways did the Compromise of 1850 reverse the Missouri Compromise?
3. How did the Compromise of 1850 set the stage for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision?
Primary Sources
Henry Clay's series of 5 separate resolutions that are collectively known as the Compromise of 1850. This attempt to save the Union included a stricter fugitive slave law, ended the slave trade in D.C., admitted California as a free state, settled the boundaries of Texas, and established New Mexico and Utah as territories with popular sovereignty. This band aid delayed the sectional rupture for 10 years while also ironically provoking the final trigger events that that would rip the nation apart.
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At 73 years old the statesman known as "The Great Compromiser" was nearing his end. The Compromise of 1850 would be Henry Clay's final effort to bind the nation together.
In his words, "I believe from the bottom of my soul, that the measure is the re-union of this Union. I believe that it is the dove of peace, which, taking its aerial flight from the dome of the capitol, carries the glad tidings of assured peace and restored harmony to all the remotest extremities of this distracted land." |
Only weeks prior to his death at age 68, former vice president and current South Carolina Senator john C. Calhoun had his speech read on the Senate floor by a friend.
He rejected the Compromise of 1850 as unsettling the balance of power in the nation and lamented that "the South possesses no means by which it can resist through the action of the Government". Calhoun warned restoring the balance of power to the South was the only step that could eventually save the Union. But that was a step he did not expect. |
Secondary Sources
Videos
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