The Compromise of 1850

President Taylor.
Had he not died, our history would be different.

The Compromise of 1850 essentially eased the strain of slavery in the states. The need for a compromise in the first place is that California wanted to become a free state. This sent the Southerners into a frenzy of fear of Northern dominance, for there then would be unbalance in the Senate. The Compromise of 1850 was introduced by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky to resolve the issues over slavery in the territory America acquired during the Mexican-American War in 1848 (California). Stephen A. Douglas divided the large compromise into smaller bills as to allow the representatives from the different regions to vote on what they liked or disliked about the compromise. Though all voted on the different parts of the compromise, the compromise was passed as Clay had envisioned it. This compromise included laws that created the New Mexico and Utah territories and admitted California as a free state. It allowed the people in each territory/state to decide whether or not to allow slavery. The Compromise also ended Washington, D.C.’s slave trade, resolved a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico, and provided ways to help southerners recover fugitive slaves. The North and South debated and fought about the Compromise of 1850’s slavery issues, but Congress, due to the support of Vice President Millard Fillmore after the unexpected death of President Taylor, who opposed the compromise, did pass the Compromise.

The compromise eased the sectionalism between the two regions. But it seems now only an obstacle on the road to the Civil War. In future years, this promise of cooperation would fade away and sectionalism would once again flare.