Can you sum up the Compromise of 1850?

Question

just a brief explanation of what it was about please

Answer 1

"The Compromise of 1850 " was the idea of Henry Clay to resolve a set of issues between the North and South over slavery after the Mexican-American War, esp. issues related to slavery in the territories.

It is called "THE Compromise", as if it were just one measure, because that's how Clay originally packaged it. He tried to convince legislators from North and South to accept them as one package based on getting SOMETHING they wanted.

But, in fact, this approach failed... and Clay died before any vote took place. Then Stephen Douglas took over -- he split Clay's original resolution into five separate bills and convinced DIFFERENT combinations to vote for each one. (In other words, it ended up NOT being one compromise at all.)

Here's a summary of the five pieces of legislation, in order of passage:

1) Texas forced to give up may western land claims -for $10 million to pay its debts
New Mexico organized without any mention (and hence no prohibition) of slavery (pro-South)
2) California admitted as a free state (pro-North)
3) Utah territory organized without any mention (and hence no prohibition) of slavery (pro-South)


4) strict new fugitive slave law (pro-South and VERY controversial)
5) Slave trade abolished in Washington D.C. (pro-North)
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/excat/douglas3.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html


Here, if you are interested,are the texts of Clay's resolution (January 29, 1850), then the five acts as they were finally passed (September1850, on the dates noted above)
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=27&page=transcript


Finally, in the midst of the debate, on March 31, 1850, John Calhoun made his last, and one of his most famous speeches (actually Calhoun was too ill, so another Senator read it for him) in which he blamed Northern agitation of the slavery question for the tensions between the sections, and included a threat of Southern states seceding if this agitation did not cease. You can see the text of that speech here:
http://www.nationalcenter.org/CalhounClayCompromise.html

Answer 2

The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act was an attempt to keep the Union together. Several key issues: Should the new territory acquired by the war with Mexico be declared free, allow slavery, or allow the people’s of this fast territory to choose for themselves? Should California be allowed to enter the Union as a free state? Ever since the Missouri Compromise, the balance between slave states and free states had been maintained; any proposal that threatened this balance would almost certainly not win approval. A land dispute existed over Texas territory. The nation’s capital was allowed slavery. In fact, it was home to the largest slave market in the North.

On January 29, 1850, Henry Clay, U.S. senator from Kentucky presented a compromise. Eight months later a series of bills that would make up the compromise were ushered through Congress.

The compromise stated that Texas would relinquish the land in dispute and in return would receive 10 million dollars to help pay off its debt to Mexico. The territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery; which allowed for the people’s of these territories to choose between free or slave and then apply for statehood. The slave trade would be abolished in the Capital but slavery would still be permitted. California would be admitted as a free state, but to appease the politicians from slave states the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. The act called for changes in filing for a claim, making the process easier for slave-owners. Also, according to the act, there would be more federal officials responsible for enforcing the law. For slaves both free and running this was a terrible time and many would flee to Canada.