The Compromise of 1850

¶ … Compromise of 1850 was. Was it a successful compromise? Why or why not? The Compromise of 1850 addressed the issue of slavery in the growing Union, and also contained the "Fugitive Slave Act," which stated that slaves who escaped from bondage in the South would be returned to their owners. The Compromise was contentious from the first, and many believe it ultimately helped create the atmosphere in both North and South that led to the South's secession from the Union and Civil War.

Basically, the Compromise of 1850 was an attempt by two sides who did not agree to reach a compromise by altering how states entered the Union, and whether they chose to become slave-holding states or free states. Many powerful politicians worked on the compromise, including Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Jefferson Davis, William Seward, Stephen Douglas, and many others. The Compromise centered on several issues that had been addressed in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, but were now coming into contention again. The Missouri Compromise basically laid a line across the middle of the United States. States entering the Union below that line entered as slave-holding states, while states entering above the line were free states. When California wanted to enter the Union in 1849, it wanted to enter as a free state, but the Missouri Compromise line literally cut the state in two. Also at issue was Texas joining the Union, along with much other territory gleaned from a war with Mexico, and the Utah territory joining the Union, which was comprised of much of modern-day Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The debate was which of these territories would be free, and which would be slave-holding to maintain the delicate balance in the country between slave-holding and free states. One historian called it a "great debate." He writes, "And so the stage was set for the great debate of 1850. It was a debate in the grand style, dealing with fundamental questions concerning the nature of the Union and the Constitution" (Rozwenc vi). Also at issues was slave-holding and trade in the nation's capital. All of these issues were extremely important at the time, and they all added up to months of debate in Congress before the Compromise was actually reached.

The final bill or the actual Compromise of 1850 addressed all these issues. Texas would not retain all the territory it originally claimed (all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico), but it would receive a payment of $10 million to help pay off debt to Mexico. The Utah Territory would be created, and the territorial charter would not mention slavery. (Voters would choose their status when the states were admitted to the Union and residents voted on their individual state charters.) California would enter the Union as a free state, while Texas would be a slave state. Finally, the bill contained the "Fugitive Slave Act" which allowed Southern slave owners to find their slaves who had run away to the North, and return them to work in the South. The bill also outlawed the buying and selling of slaves in Washington D.C., but did not make it illegal to own slaves in the nation's capital.

From the beginning, many parts of the bill were controversial and contentious. For example, the Fugitive Slave section of the bill seemed quite biased toward slave owners, rather than rights for the slaves. PBS notes, "It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. (Cases would instead be handled by special commissioners -- commissioners who would be paid $5 if an alleged fugitive were released and $10 if he or she were sent away with the claimant)" (Editors). Most blacks, both free and slave saw the bill as a disaster that would eventually lead to war over slavery. Many blacks simply left the U.S. To live in Canada, where they could not be hunted down by their masters. Historian Rozwenc continues, "The Fugitive Slave Act did not accomplish much in the recapture of slaves-though numerous recaptures, and alas! some illegal kidnappings, did take place. But it effected wonders in the stimulation of pro-slavery agitation" (Rozwenc 87). Thus, the bill created more tension than it did compromise, and more tension ultimately led to a complete break between North and South.

There were many other problems with the Compromise, too. Most people believed it was primarily a bill passed with northern support. The authors of the text note, "it was passed with northern support, especially from the northwest" (Authors 385). They continue, "For example, all the negative votes on California and the District of Columbia provisions came from the South" (Authors 385). Thus, the bill still divided the country into North and South, slave and anti-slave, and so, it really was not a compromise at all, it was another thorn in the side of both aspects of the slavery argument. Abolitionists were enraged about the Fugitive Slave Act, and it ultimately led to Harriet Beecher Stowe's legendary "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the election of Franklin Pierce, who further divided the nation, even his own supporters. The authors note, "He was now despised by many of his own party, north and south, and respected by no one" (Authors 392). He left the door open for a new political party in the country that would be led by Abraham Lincoln.