What was the 1850 Compromise and Why did it Fail?

What was the 1850 Compromise and Why did it Fail?

In 1850, Henry Clay one of the most influential political leaders in

American history introduced a set of resolutions, which aimed to

please both North and South America. The five proposals were rolled

into a single 'omnibus' bill, which offered a solution to the growing

sectional conflict over slavery and westward expansion, which arose

from the 1846 Mexican War. The 1850 Compromise, which Senator Douglas

stripped down and effectively helped pass, failed for a number of

reasons, the greatest of which was that it was unable to please both

anti-slave and pro-slave groups. In fact it merely 'papered over the

crack', and did not prove, as Daniel Webster a Clay supporter had

hoped, 'a finality that would give peace to a country long distracted

by the quarrel over slavery'. Why did the Compromise ultimately fail,

and lead to polarization, featuring a party, which had begun to

establish itself in the 1820s.

The conflict between the North and South stemmed back to 1846, when

the U.S.A won a huge area of Mexican territory as the result of what

became known as the Mexican War. The land acquired revived controversy

over the extension of slavery, as many Northerners wanted the new

territory to become a free state with no slavery, and many Southerners

wanted slavery to expand. Numerous compromises were conceded, to try

to resolve the sectional conflict, for example the Wilmot Proviso of

1846 attempted to exclude slavery from any territory gained as a

result of the war. The Calhoun Doctrine issued in 1847, and known as

'The Platform of the South', asserted that the territories were common

property of all the states. However the argument of whether slavery

should be...

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... of the affects to their economy. However many Northerners

who did resist slavery probably had a free labour ideology; that

Northern farmers could grown cotton to fuel the trade industries of

the North, as a replacement for slave labour.

The events that had occurred before and after 1846 had shown that

expansion of America created major sectional conflict and jealousies,

due principally to the question of slavery. The resolutions had

actually managed to delay the immediate danger of sectional split.

However as the apparent fairness of the Compromise was false, like all

other attempts at compromise it failed. Slavery was a moral issue,

which proved that more than a compromise was needed to resolve it. The

Compromise of 1850 ultimately resulted with a large number of

Southerners seceding from the union, furthermore political

polarization of the Democrats.