Essay On The Compromise Of 1850

1) Most Significant Causes

1. The Compromise of 1850
Of all the factors that played a role in leading to Southern secession and eventually causing the Civil War, I think the most significant was the Compromise of 1850; even though this Comprise actually worked to stall physical conflict for an additional 10 years. The Compromise of 1850 came as a response to California seeking admission into the union, however, there was great division (between Northern and Southern states) over whether the newly acquired region (from the Mexican-American War) should be let in as a slave or free state. This issue regarding the status of new states seeking admission was supposed to be dealt with by the Missouri Comprise of 1820, but because the 36°30’ line

virtually spilt California in half there were heated debates over whether the territory should be allowed in as a free or slave state, and this would obviously change the balance of power in Congress. The debates over California’s status also applied to other territories acquired from the Mexican-American War like the New Mexico territory, this in turn also worked to further the division between the Southern and Northern Americans who started to view one another as “other”. In order to deal with the impending crisis, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky offered an 8-part resolution that was supposed to not only help calm tensions between the North and South but also deal with the status of California and every other territory after it that was seeking admission.

The two most influential and most problematic of the Compromise was the idea of “Popular Sovereignty” which gave inhabitants of a territory seeking statehood the power to vote collectively over whether they wanted to allow slavery.

This part of the Compromise seemed to do more damage than good; obviously, Southerners favored the resolution (since in a way this provided federal protection of their institution) while Northerners were against it. The second most impactful resolution was the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act which not only was meant as a way of appeasing Southern who continued to threaten secession every time that they did not get their way in Congress, but which also led to a

crisis.

The Fugitive Slave Act is very important because not only did it completely strip black people, free or slave, of any chance of freedom that they had (ex.

slaves being able to find possible refuge in the North after escaping) it also took away power from “Northern courts and gave it to federal commissioners”. Through the passage of this law it was now a federal crime for any Northerner to refuse helping to catch any alleged runaway slaves; in my opinion it seems like this part of the law was meant as a way of sticking it to the “abolitionist Yankees” who Southerners blamed for why their slaves were rising up in rebellions or running away. The most damage of the Fugitive Slave Act came through its interaction with free blacks and runaway slaves. In a sense this law gave slave catchers unlimited power, if any slave had previously escaped to the North and had been free there for years, they could still be arrested and reentered into slavery; there were even some black Americans who tried fleeing even further North to Canada but that didn’t stop Southerners from going up there to retrieve them. The biggest threat from this law was faced by free blacks who could be accused of being a former slave at any time and because they received no legal protection they were simply sold into slavery as a result. While most Southerners celebrated this resolution, it was met with resistance in the North even though legally Northerners could be held accountable for not helping their fellow

Americans catch a runaway slave. An example of resistance in the North is shown in a Boston poster that warned all black Americans (free and fugitive slave) to be on the lookout for slave catchers by telling them to “avoid conversing with watchmen and police officers of Boston” since they were empowered to act as “kidnappers”.

Though the Compromise of 1850 was supposed to help calm the stormy relations between the North and South and official address the issue of slavery, all it did was worsen relations as the North fought back against what they believed to be unjust laws (Popular Sovereignty and Fugitive Slave Act) which spread the immoral and inhuman institution of slavery and provided the South with more power and say in government.

2. Election of Abraham Lincoln

I think the second most important cause of the Civil War was the election of Abraham Lincoln. As tensions were increasing and worsening during the 1850s, the political climate in the U.S. was also changing. The decline of the Whig party during and following the Election of 1852 and the emergence of nativism led to the rise of new political parties the “Know Nothing” and the Republican party (formed of some Northern Democrats, anti-slavery Whigs, and Free-Soilers). The creation of the Republican party also helped to worsen relations between Southern Democrats because they outwardly argued that their political goal was not only restoring the free/slave state (36°30’ line) restriction of the Missouri Compromise which would override the argument of popular sovereignty but to completely outlaw slavery everywhere that national law allowed them, arguing that there had already been many compromises made in the name of slavery but they had all still been “violated in the basest manner” and so essentially the time of compromise was over. The most notable figure from the Republican party was Abraham Lincoln a convert from the Whig party who argued that slavery was “a great moral wrong” and spoke against the dehumanization of those enslaved. The culmination of political anger and sectional differences came following the Election of 1860, which saw Abraham Lincoln as the victor taking 40% of the popular vote. I feel like the election of Lincoln was very significant in starting the war because it was his actual election that caused Southern states to seceded, before Lincoln whenever Southern states didn’t get their way they would threaten secession and either the President or Congress would give in to their demands or the President (ex. Jackson) would push back military and they would just stand down. I feel like the reason why states actually left in the case of Lincoln was because unlike previous presidents (ex. James Buchanan) who were willing to bend here and there to the will of the South in order keep the union together, Lincoln and his party clearly stated that “shutting slavery out of all the western territories” was the one issue that they would never compromise on and the South would basically just have to deal with it.