1. The Compromise of 1850

2. Compromise of 1850 Background
David Wilmot
James K. Polk
Lewis Cass
Wilmot Proviso
Changing view of Congress’ right to regulate slavery
Southern View
Northern View
Compromise Views offered
Polk
Lewis Cass
Both fail

3. Election of 1848 Democrats Whigs Free Soilers Results: Whigs win
Lewis Cass
Democrats
Zachary Taylor
Whigs
Van Buren
Free Soilers

4. Gold in California South panics South expects CA & New Mexico=slave
North: Minnesota & Oregon=free
CA passes anti-slavery constitution (at Taylor’s urging)
New Mexico also passes anti-slavery constitution
South panics
Why?

5. Taylor’s Stand No political experience “Jacksonize” the dissenters
Compromise impossible

6. Old Guard Seeks Compromise (Comp. of 1850)
CA admitted as a free state
New Mexico admitted w/o mention of slavery
Tougher fugitive slave law
Assumption of Texas debt
Abolition of slave trade in D.C. (slavery still ok)

7. Death of Taylor Taylor dies a slow, odd death…
Milliard Fillmore takes office
Importance of his death

8. Effects of the Compromise of 1850
Northern gains
California becomes a free state
Disputed territory does not become slave areas directly
Abolition of slave trade in Washington D.C. (slavery still legal)
Southern gains
Popular sovereignty in New Mexico/Utah territories
Assumed Texas debts
Tougher fugitive slave law enacted
North is the clear winner

9. Effect of Compromise on the Parties
Northern Democrats: accept the compromise
Whigs: Split on compromise, ends the party (ultimately)
Free-soilers: denounce it as evil

10. The Death of Three Great Statesmen
John C. Calhoun
Daniel Webster
Henry Clay
Three nationally renowned leaders die
New leadership emerges: Cass, Douglas, Seward
Why does this make a difference?

11. The Blunder of the FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
All Northerners must get involved in slavery…
Rally cry
Enforcement impossible b/c of personal liberty laws & popular opinion.

12. Southerners threatened secession and war
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
SOUTHERNERS RESPOND
Southerners threatened secession and war
Believed it should be enforced because the Constitution protects property and Federal law is over State law.
5th Amendment
Supremacy Clause

13. RESPONSE BY ABOLITIONISTS
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
Fugitive Slave Law
RESPONSE BY ABOLITIONISTS
“An immoral law makes it a man’s duty to break it, at every hazard. For virtue is the very self of every man. It is therefore a principle of law that an immoral contract is void, and that an immoral statute is void. The Fugitive Slave Law is a statute which enacts the crime of kidnapping, a crime on one footing with arson and murder. A man’s right to liberty is as inalienable as his right to life……” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“3 millions of the American people are crushed under the American Union! The government gives them no protection– the government is their enemy, the government keeps them in chains! The Union which grinds them to the dust rests upon us, and with them we will struggle to overthrow it! The Constitution which subjects them to hopeless bondage is one that we cannot swear to support. Our motto is, ‘No Union with Slaveholders’….We separate from them, to clear our skirts of innocent blood….and to hasten the downfall of slavery in America, and throughout the world!” William Lloyd Garrison