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= = = The Compromise and Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: = = Precrecursor to the Civil War = = =

[[image:http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT-EXpTKvX1F5g2oBYFU59pLRja-uqiTpZQvulLeTEAaer96pA width="204" height="239" align="right" caption="Henry Clay of Kentucky"]]
The compromise of 1850 was the all started by 73 year old, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay was sick; he had a very severe cough. Everything started in the evening of January 21, 1850. He road through the streets of Washington D.C. to visit Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, he road because he feared for the Union’s future.

For four years, Congress had pointless debates over the question of slavery. David Wilmot had proposed that slavery be prohibited from the newly acquired territories from Mexico arguing between pro and against slavery groups had become a firestorm of debate. Politicians repeatedly tried to work out a compromise, but kept failing. One of the failed compromises was to extend to Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean. Another compromise proposed by two Democratic senators, Lewis Cass of Michigan and Stephen Douglas of Illinois. This compromise was known as, “popular sovereignty” it declared that every person actually living in the territory should decide whether to allow slavery in the United States.

Neither suggestion offered a solution to the whole range of problems dividing the North and South. Henry Clay had to work out a solution that would balance the North and South. For an hour, Clay outlined a complex plan to save the Union. He proposed that Congress:
 * California be admitted as a free state
 * there be no retraction’s on slavery in New Mexico and Utah
 * Texas relinquish its claim to land in New Mexico in exchange for federal assumption of Texas’s unpaid debts
 * Congress enact a stringent and enforceable the fugitive slave law
 * the slave trade be abolished in the District of Columbia

In the last of his proposals Clay said that slave trade not slavery be abolished in the District of Columbia.

A week later Clay presents his suggestions to the Senate, Clay was known as the “Great Compromiser” (Digital History). He was known by this name because of his effort on the behalf of the Missouri Compromise and the compromise Tariff of 1832. An eight-month debate was caused by Clay proposal. This debate caused John C. Calhoun to threaten of a southern secession. Daniel Webster, put his support behind the compromise.

Webster began by saying, “Mr. President, I wish to speak today not as a Massachusetts man, nor as Northern man, but as an American… I speak today for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my cause” (Digital History). He ended his speech like this to worn of disillusionment in the Union. His speech provoked outraged from the Northerner’s about the compromise. Webster called a, “traitor to the cause of freedom” (Digital History) by Senator William H. Seward of New York. Webster’s speech put the moderate Southerners at easy because there were controlling interests in the North that were supportive of the compromise.

President Taylor purest for California, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Minnesota should be admitted to statehood. He wanted them to be admitted before slavery was brought up. In July, the Northern and Southern senators rejected the very thought of joining ranks to deflected a bill that would admit California to the Union, organize New Mexico, and Utah without reference to slavery.

The Compromise appeared to die, but on July 9, 1850, President Taylor died from gastroenteritis. His successor was Millard Fillmore, a 50 years old New Yorker, who supported the Compromise.

In congress, the leadership to fight the Compromise passed to Stephen Douglas, a senator from Illinois. He attempted Clay’s strategy of gathering all issues driving the senate into a single bill. Instead, he introduced Clay’s proposals one by one. This is how he gathered support from varying coalitions of Whigs and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners.

Banking and business interests as well as speculators in Texas bonds lobbied and even birded congressional representatives to support the compromise. In the end of all this only 4 senators and 28 representatives voted for every one of the measures, but they all passed. The final approved compromise:

The Compromise created the illusion that the problem had been resolved finally. A Northerner wrote, “There is rejoicing over the land, the bone of contention is removed; disunion, fanaticism, violence, insurrection are defeated” (Digital History). One of the Southerners correctly noted that it was, “the calm of preparation, and not of peace” (Digital History). "The compromise of 1850." //Digital History//. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2012. []. "Compromise of 1850 - Summary." //Buzzle.com//. 2012 Buzzle.com®, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. [compromise-of-1850summary.html]. "Fugitive Slave Act 1850." //National Center//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. []. "People & Events The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act 1850." //Africans in America//. PBS online, n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2012. [].
 * admitted California as a free state
 * allowed the territorial legislatures of New Mexico and Utah to settle the question of slavery in those areas
 * set up a stringent federal law for the return of runaway slaves
 * abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia
 * gave Texas $10 million to abandon its claims to territory in New Mexico east of the Rio Grande