Skill 5: Summarize the provisions of Clay's Compromise of 1850.
Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850
In 1849, tens of thousands of “Forty-niners” poured into California searching for gold. The U.S. military government in Monterey had trouble controlling the thousands of miners. Congress tried to organize a Californian state government, but the debate over whether or not California should be a slave state prevented it from happening. Late in 1849, the Californians took matters into their own hands. They set up a state government and adopted an anti-slavery constitution. U.S. President Zachary Taylor later allowed California to become part of the Union as a free state. This made the South furious, because they didn’t want the gold-rich land of California to become a free state. For the first time, this made many Southerners consider secession.
In the hopes of preventing an all-out civil war, the "Great Compromiser", Henry Clay, came to the rescue and created the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 had proposals that would help the North and South. It stated that California would enter the Union as a free state, but New Mexico and Utah Territories would be organized with no restrictions on slavery. Texas would receive $10 million in order to give up its claims on parts of New Mexico, east of the Rio Grande. The slave trade (but not slavery) would become illegal in the District of Columbia. The new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 would be passed in Congress. Congress debated these proposals for months on end, until finally both sides agreed to them in order to preserve the Union. For the next decade, the Compromise of 1850 only temporarily preserved the fragile union, for the American Civil War was inevitable.
In the hopes of preventing an all-out civil war, the "Great Compromiser", Henry Clay, came to the rescue and created the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 had proposals that would help the North and South. It stated that California would enter the Union as a free state, but New Mexico and Utah Territories would be organized with no restrictions on slavery. Texas would receive $10 million in order to give up its claims on parts of New Mexico, east of the Rio Grande. The slave trade (but not slavery) would become illegal in the District of Columbia. The new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 would be passed in Congress. Congress debated these proposals for months on end, until finally both sides agreed to them in order to preserve the Union. For the next decade, the Compromise of 1850 only temporarily preserved the fragile union, for the American Civil War was inevitable.
"All legislation, all government, all society is founded upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these everything is based...Let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, I will never compromise; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromises." - Henry Clay