Another solution to this problem was created by Henry Clay called the Missouri Compromise. This would allow Missouri to be slave state, but would enter Maine as a free state to balance the number of slave and free states. It also restricted slavery north of 36 30’ latitude which was Missouri’s southern border. Congress approved, and passed the Missouri Compromise in 1820. The states were balanced, but this compromise was a factor for the civil war because the North was still against the expansion of slavery.
On December 18, 1860 Kentucky Senator John Crittenden, offered the Crittenden Compromise as a last ditch effort to end the Civil War. It, like many other compromises before it, tried to make a compromise between the North and the South about which United States territories should and should not have slavery. The Compromise of 1850, and the Missouri Compromise were two previous compromises that had been passed that dealt with slavery in the United States. The Crittenden Compromise proposed that the United States take the boundary between the slave states and free states that was set by the Missouri Compromise, and basically extended the line to California. The states below the line would be classified as slave states, and those above the line were classified as free states.
In 1849 once again the Union was facing the same crises it had faced in 1820. California now wanted to be admitted as a free state. Once again Henry Clay came up with a compromise to resolve this conflict. California would indeed be admitted as free while the rest of the Southwest territories would decide the slavery issue by popular sovereignty. It would also abolish slavery altogether in Washington DC and initiate a stronger fugitive slave law to appease the South.
The three most important events that lead to the secession of the southern states and the civil war were the Wilmot proviso, California state hood, Fugitive slave law, and Uncle Tom?s cabin. Wilmot?s proviso it proposed western territories are closed to slavery. The Wilmot proviso it was created by David Wilmot in 1846. Wilmot proviso it supported the containment and destruction of slavery. The north feared that the south would become too powerful in congress.
The Missouri Compromise was an effort to preserve the balance of power between pro-slavery states, and anti-slavery states. At the time when Missouri asked to become a new state, there was eleven states that allowed slavery, and eleven states that did not allow slavery (History.com Staff). If Missouri had joined the union, then the balance would have shifted in favor of pro-slavery states. Northerners argued that congress had a right to ban slavery in a new state, while Southern states argued that new states had just as much right to decide if they wanted to allow slavery as the original thirteen colonies did (History.com Staff). The compromise did two things; first, it allowed Maine to enter as a free state, and Missouri to come in with slaves; second, slavery would be prohibited in the Lo... ... middle of paper ... ...y.
Congressmen from the South argued for the repeal of the compromise because they wanted slavery to extend across the country. Luckily, for the South, the Union gained more territory from the Mexican War. Mexico surrendered in 1848 and ceded multiple territories to the United States. Territories that Mexico ceded include California, New Mexico,
There is a common misconception that the American Civil War was fought only over slavery, when in fact, there were several other reasons for why the War Between the States was fought. With the end of the Mexican-American War, America had received western territories from the Mexicans as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This land was obtained in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in exchange for 15 million dollars. Now, this is a problem with the Americans because they have the decision whether or not to make these states free states or slave states. In order to ease the talks surrounding what to do with this new land, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 that made California free and allowed the residents to decide whether or not Utah and New Mexico would be considered to be a free or slave state.
In order to avoid fighting between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North, Henry Clay (Whig) and Stephen Douglas (Democrat) drafted the Compromise of 1850. Although the compromise was created to stop conflict ... ... middle of paper ... ...om’s Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1860—created conditions where Southerners felt the need to secede from the United States (they felt that their “way of life” was being threatened), as well as created conditions where the Northerners decided to go to war against the Southern Confederacy in order to maintain the Union. It is not surprising, however, that the Civil War occurred; since the Industrial Revolution, the Industrial North had always been different than the Agricultural South. If each region paid more attention to resolving the issues that separated them, instead of trying to prove themselves right, they could have stopped the bloodiest battle in American history (even though this is using hindsight knowledge).
Meanwhile, tempers also flared in New Mexico and Texas over border disputes, and abolitionists fought pro-slavery advocates over the issue of slave trading within the District of Columbia. Southern political leaders, mostly Democrats, proposed a convention in Nashville to discuss secession. In 1850, Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850 to Congress. The Compromise contained the following provisions: California would enter the union as free state. New Mexico territory would be divided into New Mexico and Utah, and offered popular sovereignty.
The matter of slavery escalated during the 1850s, even after comprises in 1820 and 1850. Causes include debate of acknowledging Missouri as a slave state in 1820, the acquirement of Texas as a slave state in 1845 and the status of slavery in western territories, won as a result of the Mexican-American War and the resulting Compromise of 1850. The North tried to eliminate slavery from dominated territories in the Wilmot Proviso after the United States’ triumph over Mexico, but the attempt failed in the Senate. The disagreements over slavery ended the Whig and Know Nothing political parties. It also caused the Democratic Party between the North and South to split, while the new Republican Party fought to end the expansion of slavery.