US History: Compromise of 1850 -- success or not?

Question

I am wondering if the Compromise of 1850 was considered a success? or not? and by what standards?

Help would be deeply appreciated!

Answer 1

Well - that is really a tough call - but I will post the implications of the Compromise of 1850 and let you decide for yourself:

[edit] Implications
The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 made any federal marshal or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave liable to a fine of $1,000. Law-enforcement officials everywhere in the United States now had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a runaway slave on no more evidence than a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership. The suspected slave could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. In addition, any person aiding a runaway slave by providing food or shelter was to be subject to six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Officers capturing a fugitive slave were entitled to a fee for their work.

The Compromise in general proved widely popular politically, as both parties committed themselves in their platforms to the finality of the Compromise on sectional issues. This peace was broken only by the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 introduced by Stephen Douglas, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and led directly to the formation of the Republican Party, whose capture of the national government in 1860 led directly to the secession crisis of 1860-1861.

Some argue that the Compromise helped to postpone the Civil War for a decade, during which time the Northwest was growing more wealthy and more populous, and was being brought into closer relations with the Northeast. But others argue that the Compromise only made more obvious pre-existing sectional divisions and laid the groundwork for future conflict.

The delay of hostilities for ten years allowed the free economy of the northern states to industrialize. The economies of the southern states, being based on slaves (free labor) and cotton (a labor intensive crop), lacked the incentive to heavily industrialize. By 1860, the northern states had more miles of railroad, greater steel production, a greater number of modern factories, a larger population of able bodied males of fighting age, and a generally higher technological level. This allowed the North to better supply, equip, and man its armed forces in the field, an advantage that would prove decisive in the later stages of the war.

The rejection of the Wilmot Proviso and the acceptance (as regards New Mexico and Utah) of "Popular Sovereignty" meant the adoption of a new principle in dealing with slavery in the territories, which appeared to undermine the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

The enforcement of the fugitive slave law aroused feelings of bitterness in the north which eventually helped to bring on the war, and helped to make it, when it came, quite as much an anti-slavery crusade as a struggle for the preservation of the Union. The enactment of the new fugitive slave law also inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write her famous novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.