5.4: The Compromise of 1850

Tension

  • Land from Mexican-American war raised tensions over expansion of slavery

    • Wilmot Proviso struck down

Southern Position

  • Slavery was a constitutional right

  • Slavery had been decided in Missouri Compromise of 1820

    • Guarantee of southern lifestyle, so they held onto it

    • To many, any compromise on slavery attacked the entire system

Free Soil Movement

  • Northern Democrats and Whigs

  • New territories acquired should be the dominion of free laborers

  • Moral and economic

    • Abolitionists wanted to ban slavery everywhere, saw it as a moral evil

    • Many free-soilers just wanted to ban slavery for economic reasons; wanted free labor or settlement without competition from enslaved laborers or plantations

Popular Sovereignty

  • Each territory should decide on slavery themselves

    • Would’ve been great for southerners if population chose to allow

      • Lots also still believed in MO Compromise

    • Only good for free-soiilers if population chose to ban

Southern Strife

  • CA and NM entered as free states

  • Southerners threatened secession

  • Precarious balance of free and slave states in Senate

  • Also rising population of North, so South needed to hold on to Senate representation

Compromise of 1850

  • California admitted as a free state

  • Utah and New Mexico become territories with popular sovereignty

  • Texas doesn’t get its extreme border, but fed gov assumes some of its public debt

  • Slave trade banned in Washington DC

  • Stricter Fugitive Slave Law

Question

Answer

Southern position on slavery

Slavery is a constitutional right, and it was decided on during the Missouri Compromise

Free Soil position on slavery

New territories should not have slavery, economic reasons

Popular Sovereignty position

Territories should decide on slavery themselves

Why did the land from the Mexican-American War trigger southerners?

CA and NM entered as free states; the South threatened secession. There was a balance of free and slave states in the Senate.

Compromise of 1850 provisions:

1. CA admitted as a free state

2. Utah and NM become territories with pop. sovereignty

3. TX doesn’t get its extreme border, but the fed gov assumes some of its public debt

4. No slave trade in Washington DC

5. Stricter Fugitive Slave Law