From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
Before the Compromise:
• Gold Rush California applies to become free state
• South wanted Southern California as slave territory
• Texas claims territory as far as the Rio Grande
• New Mexico resists Texas, applies to be free state Map of free and slave states circa 1856
• Texas takes El Paso February 1850
• Mormon pioneers apply to become State of Deseret
The Compromise was greeted with relief, although
each side disliked specific provisions.
• Texas surrendered its claim to New Mexico, which it
had threatened war over, as well as its claims north
of the Missouri Compromise Line, transferred its
crushing public debt to the federal government, and
retained the control over El Paso that it had
established earlier in 1850, with the Texas Panhandle
(which earlier compromise proposals had detached
from Texas) thrown in at the last moment.
• California’s application for admission as a free state
with its current boundaries was approved and a
Southern proposal to split California at parallel 35°
north to provide a Southern territory was not
Territorial results of the Compromise: approved.
• California is admitted undivided as a free state, denying • The South avoided adoption of the symbolically
Southern expansion to the Pacific significant Wilmot Proviso[1] and the new New
• Texas trades some territorial claims for debt relief
Mexico Territory and Utah Territory could in
• New Mexico and Deseret are denied statehood and become
principle decide in the future to become slave states
New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory with slavery left
to popular sovereignty (popular sovereignty), though these lands were
generally unsuited to plantation agriculture and
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, their existing settlers were non-Southerners
passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year uninterested in slavery, and even though Utah and a
confrontation between the slave states of the South and northern fringe of New Mexico were north of the
the free states of the North regarding the status of ter- Missouri Compromise Line where slavery was
ritories acquired during the Mexican-American War previously banned in territories. The unsettled
(1846–1848). The compromise, drafted by Whig Henry southern parts of New Mexico Territory, where
Clay and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Dou- Southern hopes for expansion had been centered,
glas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional were left attached to New Mexico instead of
conflict for four years. becoming a separate territory similar to the
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
Confederate Territory of Arizona proclaimed during even the application of the formula of popular sovereign-
the Civil War. ty to the territories were all less important than the least
• The most concrete Southern gains were a stronger remembered component of the Compromise of 1850--the
Fugitive Slave Act, the enforcement of which statute by which Texas relinquished its claims to much
outraged Northern public opinion, and preservation of New Mexico in return for federal assumption of the
of slavery in the national capital, although the slave debts."[4] Stegmaier also refers to "the principal South-
trade was banned there except in the portion of the ern demand for a division of California at the line of 35°
District of Columbia that had rejoined Virginia. north latitude" and says that "Southern extremists made
• Slave trade is banned in Washington D.C. clear that a congressionally mandated division of Califor-
The Compromise became possible after the sudden death nia figured uppermost on their agenda."[5]
of President Zachary Taylor, who, although a slaveowner, During the deadlock of four years, the Second Party
had favored excluding slavery from the Southwest. Whig System broke up, Mormon pioneers settled Utah, the Cal-
leader Henry Clay designed a compromise, which failed ifornia Gold Rush settled northern California, and New
to pass in early 1850. Upon Clay’s instruction, Democratic Mexico under a federal military government turned back
Senator Stephen Douglas (Illinois) then divided Clay’s bill Texas’s attempt to assert control over territory Texas
into several smaller pieces and narrowly won their pas- claimed as far west as the Rio Grande. The eventual Com-
sage over the opposition of those with stronger views on promise of 1850 preserved the Union, but only for anoth-
both sides, including Senator John C. Calhoun of South er decade.
Carolina.
Proposals for compromise
Background Events leading to
the U.S. Civil War
• Northwest Ordinance
• Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
• Missouri Compromise
• Tariff of 1828
• Nullification Crisis
• Nat Turner’s slave rebellion
• The Amistad
• Prigg v. Pennsylvania
• Texas Annexation
• Mexican–American War
An animation showing slave and free states and territories, • Wilmot Proviso
1789–1861. • Ostend Manifesto
• Manifest Destiny
Soon after the start of the Mexican War, when the extent • Underground Railroad
of the territories to be acquired was still unclear, the • Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
question of whether to allow slavery in those territories • Compromise of 1850
polarized the Northern and Southern United States in the • Uncle Tom’s Cabin
most bitter sectional conflict up to this time. Since Texas • Kansas–Nebraska Act
was a slave state, not only the residents of that State, but • Bleeding Kansas
the pro- and anti-slavery camps on a national scale had • Sumner-Brooks affair
an interest in the size of the state of Texas. Texas claimed • Dred Scott v. Sandford
land north of the 36°30’ demarcation line for slavery set • Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
by the 1820 Missouri Compromise. • 1860 presidential election
The Texas Annexation resolution had required that • Secession of Southern States
if any new states were formed out of Texas’ lands, those • Star of the West
north of the Missouri Compromise line would become • Corwin Amendment
free states.[2] • Battle of Fort Sumter
Senator Joseph Underwood referred to "the threat-
ened civil war, unless we appease the hot bloods of Proposals during 1846-50 on the division of the South-
Texas."[3] west included:
According to historian Mark Stegmaier, "The Fugitive • The Wilmot Proviso banning slavery in any new
Slave Act, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of territory to be acquired from Mexico, not including
Columbia, the admission of California as a free state, and
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
Texas, which had been annexed the previous year. Northern Whig and Southern Democrat opposition,
Passed by the House in August 1846 and February and enacted September 1850,
1847 but not the Senate. Later an effort failed to • admitted California as a free state
attach the proviso to the Treaty of Guadalupe • organized Utah Territory and New Mexico
Hidalgo. Territory with slavery to be decided by popular
• Failed amendments to the Wilmot Proviso by sovereignty.
William W. Wick and then Stephen Douglas • Texas dropped its claim to land north of the 32nd
extending the Missouri Compromise line (36°30’ parallel north and west of the 103rd meridian
parallel north) west to the Pacific (south of Carmel- west in favor of New Mexico Territory, and north
by-the-Sea, California), allowing the possibility of of the 36°30’ parallel north and east of the 103rd
slavery in most of present day New Mexico and meridian west which became unorganized
Arizona, and Southern California. The line was again territory. In return the US government assumed
proposed by the Nashville Convention of June 1850. Texas’s debts. El Paso, where Texas had
• Popular sovereignty, developed by Lewis Cass and successfully established county government, was
Douglas as the eventual Democratic Party position, left in Texas.
letting each territory decide whether to allow • Also, the slave trade was abolished in
slavery. Washington, D.C. (but not slavery itself)
• William L. Yancey’s "Alabama Platform," endorsed • and the Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened.
by the Alabama and Georgia legislatures and by
Democratic state conventions in Florida and
Virginia, called for no restrictions on slavery in the
Clay and Douglas draft compro-
territories either by the federal government or by mise
territorial governments before statehood, opposition
to any candidates supporting either the Wilmot
Proviso or popular sovereignty, and federal
legislation overruling Mexican anti-slavery laws.
• General Zachary Taylor, who became the Whig
candidate in 1848 and then President from March
1849 to July 1850, proposed after becoming President
that the entire area become two free states, called
California and New Mexico but much larger than the
eventual ones. None of the area would be left as an
unorganized or organized territory, avoiding the
question of slavery in the territories.
• Senator Thomas Hart Benton in December 1849 or
January 1850: Texas’s western and northern
boundaries would be the 102nd meridian west and
34th parallel north. Henry Clay takes the floor of the Old Senate Chamber; Millard
• Senator John Bell (with the assent of Texas) in Fillmore presides as he, Calhoun, and Webster look on.
February 1850: New Mexico would get all Texas land
north of the 34th parallel north (including today’s Congress convened on December 3, 1849. On January 29,
Texas Panhandle), and the area to the south 1850, Whig Senator Henry Clay gave a speech which
(including the southeastern part of today’s New called for compromise on the issues dividing the Union.
Mexico) would be divided at the Colorado River of However, Clay’s specific proposals for achieving a com-
Texas into two Southern states, balancing the promise, including his idea for Texas’ boundary, were not
admission of California and New Mexico as free adopted in a single bill.[7] Upon Clay’s urging, senator
states.[6] Stephen A. Douglas, Democrat of Illinois, divided Clay’s
• First draft of the compromise of 1850: Texas’s bill into several smaller bills, and passed each separately.
northwestern boundary would be a straight diagonal When he instructed Douglas, Clay was nearly dead and
line from the Rio Grande 20 miles north of El Paso to unable to guide the congressional debate any further.
the Red River (Mississippi watershed) at the 100th The Compromise came to coalesce around a plan dividing
meridian west (the southwestern corner of today’s Texas at its present-day boundaries, creating territorial
Oklahoma). governments with "popular sovereignty" (without the
• The Compromise of 1850, proposed by Henry Clay in Wilmot Proviso) for New Mexico and Utah, admitting Cal-
January 1850, guided to passage by Douglas over ifornia as a free state, abolishing the slave auctions in the
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
District of Columbia, and enacting a new fugitive slave the heated debates, Compromise floor leader Henry S.
law. Foote of Mississippi drew a pistol on Senator Benton.
In early June, nine slave holding Southern states sent
View of Seward and Northern delegates to the Nashville Convention to determine their
course of action should the compromise take hold. While
Whigs some delegates preached secession, eventually the mod-
erates ruled, and they proposed a series of compromises,
Most Northern Whigs, led by William Henry Seward who
including extending the geographic dividing line desig-
delivered his famous "Higher Law" speech during the
nated by the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific
controversy, opposed the Compromise as well because it
Coast.
would not have applied the Wilmot Proviso to the west-
The various bills were initially combined into one
ern territories and because of the new fugitive slave law,
"omnibus" bill. Despite Clay’s efforts, it failed in a crucial
which would have pressed ordinary citizens into duty
vote on July 31 with the majority of his Whig Party op-
on slave-hunting patrols. This provision was inserted by
posed. He announced on the Senate floor the next day
Democratic Virginia Senator James M. Mason to coerce
that he intended to persevere and pass each individual
border-state Whigs, who faced the greatest danger of los-
part of the bill. Clay, however, was physically exhausted
ing slaves as fugitives but who were lukewarm on general
as the effects of the tuberculosis that would eventually
sectional issues related to the South into supporting
kill him began to take its toll. Clay left the Senate to recu-
Texas’s land claims.[8]
perate in Newport, Rhode Island, while Stephen A. Dou-
Zachary Taylor avoided the issue as the Whig candi-
glas wrote the separate bills and guided them through
date during the 1848 U.S. presidential election but then
the Senate.[10] The situation was changed by the death of
as President attempted to sidestep the entire controversy
President Taylor and the accession of Fillmore on July 9,
by pushing to admit California and New Mexico as free
1850. The influence of the new administration was now
states immediately, avoiding the entire territorial
thrown in favor of the compromise. The Northern De-
process and thus the Wilmot Proviso question. Taylor’s
mocrats held together and supported each of the bills
stand was unpopular among Southerners and surprised
and gained Whigs or Southern Democrats to pass each
them because Taylor was a Southerner.[9]
one. All passed and were signed by President Fillmore be-
Northern Democrats and Southern Whigs supported
tween September 9 and September 20, 1850.
the Compromise. Southern Whigs, many of whom were
1. California was admitted as a free state. It passed
from the border states, supported the stronger fugitive
150-56.[11]
slave law.
2. The slave trade was abolished (the sale of slaves, not
the institution of slavery) in the District of Columbia.
Debate and results 3. The Territory of New Mexico (including present-day
Arizona) and the Territory of Utah were organized
under the rule of popular sovereignty. It passed
97-85.
4. The Fugitive Slave Act was passed, requiring all U.S.
citizens to assist in the return of runaway slaves. It
passed 109-76.
5. Texas gave up much of the western land which it
claimed and received compensation of $10,000,000 to
pay off its national debt.
Clay was still given much of the credit for the Compro-
mise’s success. It quieted the controversy between
Northerners and Southerners over the expansion of slav-
Free states in early 1850 ery and delayed secession and civil war for another
Slave states (minus Texas claims to NM) decade. Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi, who had
Territories (later state borders, Gadsden Purchase) suggested the creation of the Committee of Thirteen, lat-
Missouri Compromise Line 36°30’ er said, "Had there been one such man in the Congress of
the United States as Henry Clay in 1860–’61 there would,
On April 17, a "Committee of Thirteen" agreed on the I feel sure, have been no civil war."[12]
border of Texas as part of Clay’s plan. The dimensions
were later changed. That same day, during debates on
the measures in the Senate, Vice President Millard Fill- Implications
more and Senator Benton verbally sparred, with Fillmore The Compromise in general proved widely popular po-
charging that the Missourian was "out of order". During litically, as both parties committed themselves in their
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
platforms to the finality of the Compromise on sectional Texas was a slave state, not only the residents of that
issues. The strongest opposition in the South occurred state, but the pro- and anti-slavery camps on a national
in the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and scale had an interest in the size of the state of Texas.
Mississippi, but unionists soon prevailed, spearheaded The general solution that was adopted by the Com-
by Georgians Alexander Stephens, Robert Toombs, and promise of 1850 was to transfer a considerable part of
Howell Cobb and the creation of the Georgia Platform. the territory claimed by the state of Texas to the federal
This peace was broken only by the divisive Kansas-Ne- government, to formally organize two new territories,
braska Act of 1854 introduced by Stephen Douglas, which the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah,
repealed the Missouri Compromise and led directly to the which expressly would be allowed to locally determine
formation of the Republican Party, whose capture of the whether they would become slave or free territories, to
national government in 1860 led directly to the secession add another free state to the Union (California), adopt a
crisis of 1860-61. severe measure to recover slaves who had escaped to a
Many historians argue that the Compromise played free state or free territory (the Fugitive Slave Law), and
a major role in postponing the American Civil War for a to abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
decade, during which time the Northwest was growing
more wealthy and more populous, and was being brought
into closer relations with the Northeast.[13] During that
decade, the Whig Party had completely broken down, be-
ing replaced with the new Republican Party dominant in
the North and the Democrats in the South.[14] But oth-
ers argue that the Compromise only made more obvi-
ous pre-existing sectional divisions and laid the ground-
work for future conflict. In this view, the Fugitive Slave
Law helped polarize North and South, as shown in the
enormous reaction to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Un-
cle Tom’s Cabin. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law
aroused feelings of bitterness in the North. Furthermore,
the Compromise of 1850 led to a breakdown in the spirit
of compromise in the United States in the antebellum pe-
riod, directly before the Civil War. The Compromise ex-
emplifies this spirit, but the deaths of influential sena-
tors who worked on the compromise, primarily Henry
Clay and Daniel Webster, contributed to this feeling of in- Proposals for Texas northwestern boundary
creasing disparity between the North and South.
The delay of hostilities for ten years allowed the free Texas
economy of the northern states to continue to industri- The independent Republic of Texas won the decisive Bat-
alize. The southern states, to a large degree based on tle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) against Mexico and
slave labor and cash crop production, lacked the ability captured Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa An-
to industrialize heavily.[15] By 1860, the northern states na. He signed the Treaties of Velasco which recognized
had added many more miles of railroad, steel production, the Rio Grande River as the boundary of the Republic of
modern factories, and population to the advantages it Texas. The Treaties were repudiated by the government
possessed in 1850. The North was better able to supply, of Mexico which insisted it was sovereign over Texas
equip, and man its armed forces, an advantage that and promised to reclaim the lost territories. To the ex-
would prove decisive in the later stages of the war. tent that there was a de facto recognition, Mexico treated
the Nueces River as its northern boundary control. A
Issues huge area lay between the two rivers—largely unsettled.
Neither Mexico nor the Republic of Texas had the mil-
Three major types of issues were addressed by the Com- itary strength to effectively assert its territorial claim.
promise of 1850, to wit: a variety of boundary issues; sta- On December 29, 1845, the Republic of Texas was an-
tus of territory issues; and the issue of slavery. While ca- nexed to the United States and became the 28th state.
pable of analytical distinction, the boundary and terri- Texas was staunchly committed to slavery, with its con-
tory issues were actually included in the overarching is- stitution making illegal the unauthorized emancipation
sue of slavery. Pro- and anti-slavery interests were each of slaves by their owners. With this annexation the Unit-
concerned with both the amount of land on which slav- ed States inherited the territorial claims of the former
ery was permitted and with the number of States which Republic of Texas against Mexico. The territorial claim to
respectively would be in the slave or free camps. Since
5
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande
River and Mexican resistance to it led to the Mexican-
American War. On February 2, 1848, that war was con-
cluded by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Among the
provisos of the Treaty was the recognition by Mexico of
the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande
River being a part of the United States.
The Republic of Texas claimed ownership of the east-
ern half of present-day New Mexico, along with sections
of Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming. Texas had never effec-
tively controlled the area, which was dominated by hos-
tile Indian tribes (see Comancheria). However the feder-
al government had seized and controlled the area after
1846. The Compromise of 1850 solved the problem by set-
New Mexico proposed boundary before Compromise of 1850
ting the present boundaries of Texas in return for $10
million in federal bonds paid to the state of Texas. [16]
The state of Texas was heavily burdened with debt
which had arisen during its struggles as the Republic
of Texas. The federal government agreed to pay
$10,000,000.00 in "stock" in trade for the transfer of a
large portion of the claimed area of the state of Texas
to the territory of the federal government and for the
relinquishment of various claims which Texas had upon
the federal government. (This "stock" bore interest at
the rate of 5%, which interest was collectible every six
months, and the principal was redeemable at the end of
fourteen years.)[17]
The Constitution (Article IV, Section 3) does not per-
mit Congress to unilaterally reduce the territory of any
state so the first part of the Compromise of 1850 had to
take the form of an offer to the Texas State Legislature,
rather than a unilateral enactment. The Texas State Leg-
islature did ratify the bargain and in due course the
transfer of a large swath of land from the state of Texas to The Utah Territory is shown in blue and outlined in black. The
the federal government was accomplished. Texas was al- boundaries of the provisional State of Deseret are shown with a
lowed to keep the following portions of the erstwhile dis- dotted line.
puted land: that which is south of the 32nd parallel, and
that which is south of the 36°30’ parallel north and east of western part of present-day New Mexico, present-day
the 103rd meridian west. The rest of the land which had Colorado west of the crest of the Rocky Mountains, and
been disputed between Mexico and the Republic of Texas a small portion of present-day Wyoming. (A strip of land
was transferred to federal government along the southern border of present-day Arizona and
New Mexico was not acquired from Mexico until 1853
New Mexico and Utah Territories with the Gadsden Purchase.)
The first law of the Compromise of 1850 also organized The other of these sources was land which had been
the Territory of New Mexico. The second law, also enact- claimed by the Republic of Texas. The Treaty of
ed September 9, 1850, organized the Territory of Utah. Guadalupe Hidalgo made no mention of the claims of the
The land committed to each of these newly organized Republic of Texas; Mexico simply agreed to a Mexico-
territories was drawn from two distinct sources. U.S. border south of both the "Mexican Cession" and the
One of these sources was the Mexican Cession of 1848. Republic of Texas claims.[18] Prior to the Compromise of
The Mexican Cession was a major provision of the Treaty 1850, this disputed land had been claimed but never con-
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the treaty which concluded the trolled by the state of Texas. This land included present-
Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848. The land day eastern New Mexico, southern and western parts of
transferred from Mexico to the United States by the Mex- present-day Colorado, and small parts of present-day
ican Cession included all of present-day California, Neva- Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.
da and Utah, most of present-day Arizona, most of the
6
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
From the Mexican Cession, the New Mexico Territory California Gold Rush, quickly increasing the population
received most of the present-day state of Arizona, most exponentially. In response to growing demand for a bet-
of the western part of the present-day state of New Mex- ter more representative government, a Constitutional
ico, and the southern tip of present-day Nevada (south Convention was held in 1849. The delegates there unan-
of the 37th parallel). From Texas, the territory received imously outlawed slavery. They had no interest in ex-
most of present-day eastern New Mexico, a portion of tending the Missouri Compromise Line through Califor-
present-day Colorado (east of the crest of the Rocky nia and splitting the state; the lightly populated southern
Mountains, west of the 103rd meridian, and south of the half never had slavery and was heavily Hispanic.[20]
38th parallel), and a small portion of present-day Wyom- The third statute of the Compromise of 1850 allowed
ing. California to be admitted to the Union, undivided, as a
From the Mexican Cession, the Utah Territory re- free state on September 9, 1850.[21]
ceived present-day Utah, most of present-day Nevada
(everything north of the 37th parallel), a major part of Fugitive Slave Law
present-day Colorado (everything west of the crest of the The fourth statute of the Compromise of 1850, enacted
Rocky Mountains), and a small part of present-day Wy- September 18, 1850, is informally known as the Fugitive
oming. this included the newly founded colony at Salt Slave Law or the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. (It bolstered
Lake of Brigham Young. From Texas, the Utah Territory the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.) The new version of the
received most of present day eastern New Mexico, and Fugitive Slave Law required federal judicial officials in
some of present-day Colorado that is east of the crest of all states and federal territories, including in those states
the Rocky Mountains. and territories in which slavery was prohibited, to active-
A key provision of each of the laws respectively orga- ly assist with the return of escaped slaves to their mas-
nizing the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of ters in the states and territories permitting slavery. Any
Utah was that slavery would be either permitted or pro- federal marshal or other official who did not arrest an al-
hibited as a local option (Popular Sovereignty). This was leged runaway slave was liable to a fine of $1,000. Law-
an important repudiation of the Wilmot Proviso, which enforcement officials everywhere in the United States
would have forbidden slavery in any territory acquired had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a fugitive
from Mexico. slave on no more evidence than a claimant’s sworn tes-
timony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask
California for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. In ad-
dition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing
food or shelter was to be subject to six months’ imprison-
ment and a $1,000 fine. Officers capturing a fugitive slave
were entitled to a fee for their work.
In addition to federal officials, the ordinary citizens
of free states could be summoned into a posse and be
required to assist in the capture and/or custody and/or
transportation of the alleged escaped slave. This partic-
ular law was so rigorously pro-slavery as to prohibit the
admission of the testimony of a person accused of being
an escaped slave into evidence at the judicial hearing to
determine the status of the accused escaped slave. Thus,
Map of Mexico. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847. New if a freedman were claimed to be an escaped slave under
California is depicted with a north-eastern border at the the Fugitive Slave Law he or she could not resist his or
meridian leading north of the Rio Grande headwaters. her return to slavery by truthfully telling his or her own
actual history
California also became part of the U.S. as a result of the The Fugitive Slave Act was essential to meet Southern
Mexican Cession. After the Mexican War, California was demands. In terms of public opinion in the North the crit-
essentially run by military governors. President James K. ical provision was that ordinary citizens were required
Polk tried to get Congress to officially establish a terri- to aid slave catchers. Many northerners deeply resented
torial government in California, but the increasing North this requirement that they personally aid and abet slav-
vs. South debates prevented this.[19] The South wanted to ery. Resentment towards this act continued to heighten
extend slave territory to Southern California and to the tensions between the North and South, as inflamed by
Pacific coast, while the North did not. abolitionists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her book Un-
Starting in late 1848, Americans and foreigners of cle Tom’s Cabin stressed the horrors of recapturing es-
many different countries rushed into California for the caped slaves, and outraged Southerners.[22]
7
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
Banning slave trade in the District of Co- [19] California and New Mexico: Message from the
President of the United States .By United States.
lumbia President (1849-1850 : Taylor), United States. War
The fifth law, enacted on September 20, 1850, prohibited Dept (Ex. Doc 17 page 1) Google eBook
the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the District of [20] William Henry Ellison. A self-governing dominion,
Columbia.[23] Southerners in Congress were unanimous California, 1849-1860 (1950) online
in opposing this provision, which was seen as a conces- [21] [2] An Act for the Admission of the State of
sion to the abolitionists, but were outvoted.[24] California into the Union
[22] Larry Gara, "The Fugitive Slave Law: A Double
See also Paradox," Civil War History, Sept 1964, Vol. 10#3, pp
229-240
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin [23] David L. Lewis, District of Columbia: A Bicentennial
History, (W.W. Norton, 1976), 54-56.
References [24] Damani Davis, "Slavery and Emancipation in the
Nation’S Capital," Prologue, Spring 2010, Vol. 42#1
[1] [1] Michael Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American
pp 52-59
Whig Party (2003) p 252
[2] Joint Resolution of Congress, Mar. 1, 1845
[3] #Keleher, p.41 Further reading
[4] Mark J. Stegmaier (1996). Texas, New Mexico, and the • Foster, Herbert D. (1922). "Webster’s Seventh of
compromise of 1850: boundary dispute & sectional March Speech and the Secession Movement, 1850".
conflict. Kent State University Press. American Historical Review 27 (2): 245–270.
http://books.google.com/ doi:10.2307/1836156.
books?id=RDp6AAAAMAAJ. • Heidler, David S., and Jeanne T. Heidler. Henry Clay:
[5] Stegmaier, p. 172 and p. 177 The Essential American (2010), major scholarly
[6] W. J. Spillman (January 1904). "ADJUSTMENT OF biography; 624pp
THE TEXAS BOUNDARY IN 1850.". Quarterly of the • Holman Hamilton, Prologue to Conflict: The Crisis and
Texas State Historical Association 7. Compromise of 1850 (1964), the standard historical
http://books.google.com/ study
books?id=mNQ1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185. • Holman Hamilton. "Democratic Senate Leadership
[7] Robert Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union and the Compromise of 1850," The Mississippi Valley
(1993) pp 730-61 Historical Review, Vol. 41, No. 3. (Dec., 1954),
[8] John M. Taylor, William Henry Seward: Lincoln’s right pp. 403–418. in JSTOR
hand (1996) p. 85 • Holman Hamilton. Zachary Taylor, Soldier in the White
[9] Elbert B. Smith, President Zachary Taylor: the hero House (1951)
president (2007) p. 238 • Holt, Michael F. The Political Crisis of the 1850s (1978).
[10] Eaton (1957) p. 192-193. Remini (1991) pp. 756–759 • Holt, Michael F. The Fate of Their Country: Politicians,
[11] Holman Hamilton, Prologue to Conflict (University of Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War (2005).
Kentucky Press, 1965), p. 160 • Johannsen, Robert W. Stephen A. Douglas (1973) (ISBN
[12] Remini (1991) pp. 761- 762 0195016203)
[13] Robert Remini,The House: A History of the House of • William Aloysius Keleher (1951). Turmoil in New
Representatives (2006) p. 147 Mexico. Santa Fe: Rydal Press. ISBN 9780826306326.
[14] Holt, Michael F. The Political Crisis of the 1850s (1978). http://books.google.com/books?id=yoZCx5MnOO0C.
[15] Elizabeth Fox-Genovese,Fruits of Merchant Capital • Knupfer, Peter B. "Compromise and Statesmanship:
(1983). Henry Clay’s Union." in Knupfer, The Union As It Is:
[16] Mark J. Stegmaier, Texas, New Mexico, and the Constitutional Unionism and Sectional Compromise,
Compromise of 1850: Boundary Dispute and Sectional 1787-1861 (1991), pp. 119–57.
Crisis (1998) • Morrison, Michael A. Slavery and the American West:
[17] Holman Hamilton, "Texas Bonds and Northern The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil
Profits: A Study in Compromise, Investment, and War (1997) (ISBN 0807823198)
Lobby Influence," Mississippi Valley Historical Review • Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union (1947) v 2, highly
Vol. 43, No. 4 (Mar., 1957), pp. 579-594 in JSTOR detailed narrative
[18] "Handbook of Texas Online: Compromise of 1850". • Potter, David M. The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (1977),
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/ pp 90-120; Pulitzer Prize
articles/CC/nbc2.html. • Remini, Robert. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union
(1991)
8
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Compromise of 1850
• Remini, Robert. At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay • Stegmaier, Mark J. (1996). Texas, New Mexico, and the
and the Compromise That Saved the Union (2010) 184 compromise of 1850: boundary dispute & sectional crisis.
pages; the Compromise of 1850 Kent State University Press.
• Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from http://books.google.com/
the Compromise of 1850, vol. i. (1896). complegte text books?id=RDp6AAAAMAAJ.
online • Wiltse, Charles M. John C. Calhoun, Sectionalist,
• Rozwenc, Edwin C. ed. The Compromise of 1850. (1957) 1840-1850 (1951)
convenient collection of primary and secondary
documents; 102 pp.
• Russel, Robert R. "What Was the Compromise of
External links
1850?" Journal of Southern History Vol. 22, No. 3 (Aug., • Compromise of 1850
1956), pp. 292-309 in JSTOR • Compromise of 1850 and related resources
• Sewell, Richard H. Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery • Texas Library and Archive Commission Page on 1850
Politics in the United States 1837-1860 New York: Oxford Boundary Act
University Press, 1976.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Compromise_of_1850&oldid=475589890"
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• 31st United States Congress
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