Section 15.2:

The Compromise of 1850

A. Political Parties and Slavery

1. Prior to the 1840s, compromises had eased the divisions of America based on slavery.

2. The national party system had forced Whigs and Democrats to forge inter-sectional coalitions.

3. By 1848 sectional interests were eroding these coalitions.

4. Sectional divisions in religious and other organizations had begun to divide the country.

B. Congressional Debate1. John C. Calhoun had laid out the states’ rights defense

by claiming that:a. the territories were the common property of each of

the statesb. Congress could not discriminate against slave

owners. 2. Northerners grew increasingly concerned over what

they saw as a southern conspiracy to control the government: the “slave power.”

3. The three aging regional leaders—Daniel Webster of the North, Henry Clay of the West, and John C. Calhoun of the South—attempted to resolve the issues of 1850.

C. Two Communities, Two Perspectives

1. Both North and South:a. were committed to expansion, but each viewed manifest

destiny in its own termsb. shared a commitment to basic rights and liberties but

saw the other as infringing on them. 2. Two communities with two perspectives had emerged.

a. Northerners viewed their region as a dynamic society that offered opportunity to the common man, in contrast to the stagnant slave owning aristocracy of the South.

b. Southerners viewed their section as promoting equality for whites by keeping blacks in a perpetual state of bondage.

3. The chances for national reconciliation were slim.

D. Compromises

1. The Compromise of 1850 was actually five separate bills

a. California came in as a free state.

b. Other southwest territories were to be settled by popular sovereignty.

c. A stronger fugitive slave law was enacted.

d. The slave trade was outlawed in Washington, D.C.

e. The Texas–New Mexico border dispute was settled.

MAP 15.2 The Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850, messier and more awkward than the Missouri Compromise of 1820, reflected heightened sectional tensions. California was admitted as a free state, the borders of Texas were settled, and the status of the rest of the former Mexican territory was left to be decided later by popular sovereignty. No consistent majority voted for the five separate bills that made up the compromise.

E. The Fugitive Slave Act

1. The issue of runaway slaves further divided the nation.

2. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 put the full force of the federal government behind slave catchers.

- States had previously passed acts against aiding slave catchers.

3. Mobs of northerners unsuccessfully tried to prevent the law from being carried out.

4. Black fugitives described their experiences as slaves,

helping to raise Northerners’ consciousness.

This handbill warning free African Americans of danger circulated in Boston following the first of the in famous recaptures under the Fugitive Slave Law, that of Thomas Sims in 1851. SOURCE:Library of Congress.

F. The Election of 1852

1. The growing polarization of opinion strained the party system.

2. The Democrats won in the election of 1852 by avoiding sectional issues.

3. The new President Franklin Pierce supported independent efforts to seize territory by “filibusters” like William Walker and endorsed efforts to buy Cuba.

G. “Young America”: The Politics of Expansion

1. Between 1845 and 1848, the United States became a continental nation.

2. The swift victory over Mexico served to reinforce American pride.

3. A series of revolutions in Europe reinforced Americans’ sense that their ideals of democracy and manifest destiny were to be achieved.

4. Expansionist Democrats styled themselves part of a “Young America” movement and pushed for further expansion in Mexico and Cuba.

In 1850, the three men who had long represented America’s three major regions attempted to resolve the political crisis brought on by the applications of California and Utah for statehood. Henry Clay is speaking; John C. Calhoun stands third from right; and Daniel Webster is seated at the left, with his head in his hand. Both Clay and Webster were ill, and Calhoun died before the Compromise of 1850 was arranged by a younger group of politicians led by Stephen A. Douglas. SOURCE:Library of Congress.