Essay On The Compromise Of 1850

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1) Most Significant Causes 1. The Compromise of 1850 Of all the factors that played a role in leading to Southern secession and eventually causing the Civil War, I think the most significant was the Compromise of 1850; even though this Comprise actually worked to stall physical conflict for an additional 10 years. The Compromise of 1850 came as a response to California seeking admission into the union, however, there was great division (between Northern and Southern states) over whether the newly acquired region (from the Mexican-American War) should be let in as a slave or free state. This issue regarding the status of new states seeking admission was supposed to be dealt with by the Missouri Comprise of 1820, but because the 36°30’ line …show more content…

This part of the Compromise seemed to do more damage than good; obviously, Southerners favored the resolution (since in a way this provided federal protection of their institution) while Northerners were against it. The second most impactful resolution was the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act which not only was meant as a way of appeasing Southern who continued to threaten secession every time that they did not get their way in Congress, but which also led to a …show more content…

slaves being able to find possible refuge in the North after escaping) it also took away power from “Northern courts and gave it to federal commissioners”. Through the passage of this law it was now a federal crime for any Northerner to refuse helping to catch any alleged runaway slaves; in my opinion it seems like this part of the law was meant as a way of sticking it to the “abolitionist Yankees” who Southerners blamed for why their slaves were rising up in rebellions or running away. The most damage of the Fugitive Slave Act came through its interaction with free blacks and runaway slaves. In a sense this law gave slave catchers unlimited power, if any slave had previously escaped to the North and had been free there for years, they could still be arrested and reentered into slavery; there were even some black Americans who tried fleeing even further North to Canada but that didn’t stop Southerners from going up there to retrieve them. The biggest threat from this law was faced by free blacks who could be accused of being a former slave at any time and because they received no legal protection they were simply sold into slavery as a result. While most Southerners celebrated this resolution, it was met with resistance in the North even though legally Northerners could be held accountable for not helping their fellow

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